Should Notre Dame be allowed to compete in the College Football Playoff?
It’s a pretty tough question, and answering it almost always leads to heated debate. For Missouri coach Gary Pinkel, there’s a simple answer that is familiar to any college football fan. In his eyes, until the Fighting Irish join a conference, they should not be allowed to compete for a playoff spot at the end of the year.
Gary Pinkel said no independents in @CFBPlayoff. “Give Notre Dame year to join a league. They don’t have independents in NFL"
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) July 20, 2015
This is probably the most common argument against Notre Dame. In the eyes of a lot of people, not competing in a conference is an automatic disqualification, and because college football’s other three Independents – Army, BYU, Navy – aren’t as prominent nationally as the Fighting Irish, it only seems to be an issue for Brian Kelly’s squad.
Of course, the issue comes in when Notre Dame has a really strong schedule, making the whole “no conference” thing irrelevant. For example, if Notre Dame ran the table last regular season, they would have taken down Stanford, Florida State, Arizona State, Louisville, and USC, which is a more impressive list of five wins than most other schools would have possessed.
Still, this would be a lot easier if the Fighting Irish just joined the ACC. Please make life easier for everyone else and end this debate forever, Notre Dame.
(via SB Nation)
