PREDICTION: Notre Dame Will Beg For A 24-Team Playoff And Will Need The USC Trojans Game Yearly

Ajouté : 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Trojan family, what's going on? Welcome back to the USCLA FP show presented by FanDuel. Wednesday walks with Madeline. Beautiful day here in Los Angeles. A little bit overcast, but feels great outside.

[00:00:14]I hope everyone is doing well. So, this morning a new report from Yahoo came out basically stating that the Big 12, the ACC, and Notre Dame specifically have all jumped on board with the Big 10 in this 24-team playoff expansion.

[00:00:35]Now, the inclusion of Notre Dame there is interesting. This will be the hopefully last video for a while where I talk about Notre Dame as it pertains to this, but I thought it was interesting in in correlation obviously with USC.

[00:00:48]Now, the SEC is the last conference that kind of needs to jump on board with this plan happening.

[00:00:56]You know, they've been pretty adamant about a 16-team expansion if it were to expand at all.

[00:01:03]And I think part of that is you know, whether I agree or not or you agree or not, there's still bias out there for the SEC and their strength of schedule. We saw it just last year, five SEC SEC SEC, if I can say it, teams got in to the playoff when clearly five were not good enough to be in that playoff.

[00:01:27]And so, they've never really had to worry about qualifiers and you know, a certain number of teams getting in cuz they've always gotten the most. In the four-team playoff, they always not always, but very often had two teams make a four-team playoff and there was five power five conferences back in those days. So, they'll be a tough one to sway for that reasoning. Obviously, part of it is with the conference games and the SEC conference game makes a ton of money. So, we'll see if that's something they eventually were willing to negotiate with. But anyway, the point of this is the interesting fact they include the Yahoo report includes Notre Dame has jumped on board this, which, if you're keeping track, why in the world would Notre Dame want to expand the playoff?

[00:02:13]They've got their, you know, their sweetheart deal where all they got to do is finish in the top 12 and they're guaranteed in, no matter what.

[00:02:21]They don't play a conference championship game.

[00:02:23]So, powers that be, they can get in every single year just finishing in the top 12, which they're a good enough football team and their schedule's, you know, formidable enough at the moment where they should be able to make that happen.

[00:02:36]However, as I've been saying for a year now, and I still stand by this, more and more of the strong power four teams, I'm not going to say as strong as a boycott, but more and more, or I should say less and less, are going to not schedule Notre Dame.

[00:02:53]And the Notre Dame side will say, "No, that's, you know, it's a it's a money game. We've got these big teams scheduled all the way through 2032."

[00:03:02]Those games, I'm sorry, going to get canceled. Texas, Alabama, we'll see if those games even stick that long, um that that many years down the line.

[00:03:11]So, fewer and fewer of these power four teams are going to schedule Notre Dame.

[00:03:18]And when their ACC contract comes to an end, which, as we all know and it was reported yesterday, their relationship with the ACC is not exactly great.

[00:03:29]They said it's the best it's ever been.

[00:03:32]Sources inside the ACC said, "Uh, it's, you know, they're they're getting sick and tired of having to deal with the prima donna that is Notre Dame."

[00:03:40]And so, when that deal ends, they will need to either re-up it in the current structure of, you know, where they play five to six ACC games every year as a partial member, or join as a full team member.

[00:03:55]Because if they do not do that and if as I believe more and more power four teams will quote unquote boycott scheduling Notre Dame how are they going to schedule a strong enough schedule especially in the months of October when everyone else is in their conference games? We've talked about this at the time with USC, the reason why they want to move to the front, not in the middle of their conference schedule.

[00:04:18]How are they ever in four or five years from now going to have a competitive enough schedule to even think about finishing in the top 12?

[00:04:30]Think about it. They're They need a 24-team playoff because that's the only way they will get big power four teams to schedule with them because of there being more of an ability to get in with 24 teams.

[00:04:44]So people can moan and Notre Dame fans can sit on their pedestal and deny it all they want but they have to be begging for this 24-team playoff structure to come to fruition because if not they're going to have a real challenging time. Not right now, not this year.

[00:05:04]Maybe not even next year.

[00:05:06]But in the very near future it is going to be very challenging for them to put together an even semblance of a challenging schedule.

[00:05:15]It's already pretty weak, we all know that. Right? I mean, Notre Dame fans can deny it all they want but it's already one of the weaker schedules in college football.

[00:05:24]And there it would be even weaker if it stays in this 12-team or 16-team format cuz none of those teams are going to going to come calling to play them in October and November. So sure, maybe they'll still get some of those big games in September.

[00:05:38]As I've said, I believe the USC Notre Dame game will be back in two to four years and it will be played in September. So they'll have that. Maybe Texas and Alabama keep it in September.

[00:05:49]But, once that ACC contract ends, and they're not going to get, you know, and I know there's a long-standing contract, I think, with Clemson to go even further past that outside of the ACC.

[00:05:59]I mean, those things can get voided, those things can get changed, and there's a world where Notre Dame is scrapping and clawing and begging Mountain West schools to play them in November and October, or the new Pac-12 schools to play them because they can't get a single power four team to play them in the middle of their conference schedule in the heart of the college football season when the big games matter the most. So, don't listen to the outside noise, or not even outside noise. Don't listen to Notre Dame noise. They are begging for this 2014 playoff to come to fruition because in four years or so, that's the only way they're going to get in based on level of competition.

[00:06:35]So, just a thought I had as I thought that this morning cuz it was interesting that Yahoo specifically said, "Big 12, ACC, and Notre Dame jump on board." So, we'll see. I know there's a lot of thoughts on this 2014 playoff in general.

[00:06:50]Um I I'm warming up more to it. Like I said, I still prefer the 12, or I'm okay with the 16-team. I think that's a better sweet spot for me, but I'm warming up to it. I understand it, I think uh you know, it would have it would have some uh interesting facets to it. You get some fun matchups back just because there wouldn't be so much onus on just the conference schedule because you'd have some wiggle room. So, we will see. But, latest thoughts on that. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Be back on later today with more recruiting news. Appreciate your family, as always. Fight on.