Marcus Freeman believes Notre Dame would 'make it work' if forced to join a conference

Marcus Freeman isn’t ready for Notre Dame to lose its NCAA independence.

But if the ongoing changes taking place in college football ultimately force the Fighting Irish to join a Power conference, the fourth-year Notre Dame head coach knows his squad will “make it work.”

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“You know, we pride ourselves on our independence. If they come out with a decision that we can’t be independent, then we’ll make it work,” Freeman said Wednesday morning during an Orange Bowl coaches press conference alongside Penn State‘s James Franklin. “I don’t have a whole bunch of opinions on it. I’m a guy that’s just tell us what we’re doing and let’s go and move forward, and let’s make the most of it. Not the answer you’re probably looking for, but I’m not strongly opinionated about it.

“I love where we’re at right now. And (Irish athletic director) Pete Bevacqua and our Notre Dame administration will continue to make decisions that’s best for our program.”

The topic of Notre Dame losing its independence was prompted after Franklin called for more uniformity among the College Football Playoff-eligibile programs earlier in Wednesday’s Orange Bowl press conference.

Freeman leads No. 7 seed Notre Dame (13-1) against sixth-seeded Penn State (13-2) in the College Football Playoff national semifinal in the Thursday night’s Orange Bowl (7:30 pm ET, ESPN) from Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.

James Franklin calls for all teams to be in a conference in front of Marcus Freeman

Ahead of an Orange Bowl matchup against Notre Dame in a College Football Playoff semifinal contest, Penn State coach James Franklin wasted little time stating he thinks the sport needs some major change.

Franklin opened up on why he thinks things need to be more standardized across the country, perhaps putting Freeman in an awkward position on the same stage.

“Obviously you talk about the differences between our two programs and conferences,” Franklin said. “I think it should be consistent across college football. Again, this is no knock at coach or Notre Dame, but I think everybody should be in a conference. I think everybody should play a conference championship game or no one should play a conference championship game.”

Freeman shifted uncomfortably in his seat, perhaps realizing he was about to face questions about whether Notre Dame should remain independent. James Franklin continued on with his point.

“I think everybody should play the same number of conference games,” Franklin said. “I was a head coach in the SEC, I’ve been a head coach in the Big Ten. I was in the SEC when the whole conversation was whether to go to eight or nine conference games. We voted, all the coaches voted against going to nine games. The commissioner agreed and kept it at eight. I think it was one of the better decisions the SEC made.

“The Big Ten went to nine games. And I was not a math major at East Stroudsburg, but just the numbers are going to make things more challenging if you’re playing one more conference game. So I just think things need to be consistent across college football.”

Thomas Goldkamp contributed to this report.