The Notre Dame Fighting Irish play the Ohio State Buckeyes on Monday for a chance to win their first college football national championship since 1988. Win or lose tonight, Notre Dame is already the financial winner of the first 12-team College Football Playoff. The Irish have earned $20 million for their three bracket wins, far more than any other team in the field. The program received $4 million for qualifying for the CFP, $4 million for advancing to the quarterfinals, $6 million for making the semifinals and $6 million for reaching the national championship game (no additional payout will be given to Monday’s winner). Additionally, the team has received $3 million in each round to cover expenses. Typically, these payouts for CFP success go to the conferences rather than the individual universities, but because Notre Dame’s football team does not belong to a conference, it gets to keep 100% of that revenue.
Looks like Alabama will be finally getting Ryan Grubb as their OCoord. Alabama is set to hire Ryan Grubb as offensive coordinator, reuniting him with Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer, sources told ESPN. Grubb served as offensive coordinator under DeBoer at Washington in 2022 and 2023, and was set to join him at Alabama in the same role for the 2024 season. But Grubb instead remained in Seattle as the Seahawks' offensive coordinator, a role he held until last month.
Also I see that Matt Rhule has put the Nebraska Spring game in the 'maybe, or maybe not" category. His concern is the Tampering that is going on now, and that a Spring game just serves as a sort of combine for other teams to see players and decide if they want to try and take them away from the Huskers.
I actually started to analyze their poll...then decided that A. Arguing this stuff is pretty futile and pointless, and B. I was allowing my chain to be pulled. But I think going 6-1 over top 10 teams, and beating #2,3,4,and 5 somehow ought to speak for itself.
I like the new CFP because not only does it give more teams a shot, but when you win it you have truly earned it.
I’m ok with all that. All I’m saying is going 11-1 against unranked teams will get you in the playoffs too.
That's the reason I'm proud and happy for ND's performance. Say what you want about records and level of regular season competition (which often is said about ND, especially after the early loss to NIU), we beat an 11-1 Indiana, the SEC champ Georgia, and the BIG second place (tied with IU but ranked in the top 5) Penn State. In the end, we played competitively in the championship game. This is in stark contrast to our undefeated 2012 team who was annihilated by Alabama in the championship game and faced some pretty loud criticism (which we're accustomed to) that we didn't belong there. Of course, Alabama was a powerhouse team and possibly could have done the same to any opponent, but it happened to be us.
The above post notwithstanding, IMO there needs to be some tweeks to the CFP, most of which have been discussed here (S of S, overall composite ranking, who gets an automatic bid, etc.).
Once again I’m not belittling anyone’s season or schedule. We can’t control other teams record. It just is what it is. Actually I probably should have said Indiana beat 11 unranked teams and lost to the only ranked team they played. My argument is that there is no advantage to scheduling tough out of conference opponents. If you win 11 games you are in, no matter who you play.
I actually think the 12 team playoff made SOS irrelevant. When it was a 4 team field, 2 losses essentially eliminated you from the playoffs, so SOS was the descriminator. With 12 teams, almost all 1 and 2 loss teams are in. So losses is the discriminator. SOS is no longer needed.
Kyle, for the record, my post about earning it was was meant only to augment Terry's post and had nothing to do with your feelings about the CFP. I agree with your concern about SOS possibly being irrelevant, and it's one of the concerns I feel should be addressed, at the very least as a tiebreaker. EDIT: Perhaps what's been on my mind is that I had read a column by a USA Today sportswriter named Matt Hayes, written before the games were played, scorching the choice of Indiana. It was perhaps one of the most mean-spirited sports column I had ever read. Well, IU was very competitive vs. ND, and by the time it was all over, the only games IU had lost were to Ohio State and ND, the two finalists. Karma for Mr. Hayes?