Marcus Freeman on Notre Dame being unable to get CFP bye: ‘We still have the same approach’

Notre Dame Fighting Irish head football coach Marcus Freeman joined the SportsCenter crew Thursday afternoon to discuss the program as they prepare for the 2024 season. During the interview, Freeman shared his thoughts on the expanded field for the College Football Playoff.

With Notre Dame sitting at No. 7 in ESPN’s college football power index, there is a strong chance they will compete for a national championship at the end of the year. However, the expanded playoff format prevents the Fighting Irish from earning a potential bye, something that Freeman does not appear to be too concerned with.

“I’m a proponent of college football. So, to give more teams an opportunity to compete for the national championship and make the playoffs, I think it’s gonna be a great situation and something new; it’s gonna be great for college football,” said Freeman.

“As far as our season [and] our mindset, we still have the same approach. Our job is to try to go out and win every game we play. And the biggest focus will have to be on that period from the end of Week 12 to the first round, and that’s where we’ve done some really forward-thinking in terms of what would we do during that time period. But our mindset hasn’t changed: it will be a longer season… depth is going to be important, but our approach is to go out and win every game we play and continue to improve as a football team each week.”

With the expanded College Football Playoff field, going from four teams to 12, the top four programs will be given a first-round bye. However, in order to be a top-four seed, you have to be one of the four highest-ranked conference champions, something Notre Dame cannot do as an independent. Therefore, the ceiling for Freeman and the fighting Irish is the No. 5, automatically disqualifying them from the potential of having a first-round bye.

As Freeman pointed out, Notre Dame is well aware of this situation while fully expecting to be one of the top 12 teams in the nation by the end of the regular season. So, they have been focusing more on how the end of the season will look for the fighting Irish players.

As Freeman continued, he highlighted the factors he’s considering towards the end of the season and how he is looking at navigating the new terrain.

“Well, I think you gotta take into consideration [that] a lot of our young people will be taking finals,” said Freeman. “So usually, when they were in finals and previous years, coaches were on the road recruiting. Coaches won’t be on the road recruiting anymore. We have an early signing period with recruiting.

“So all these different elements in terms of: when are we gonna practice and coincide that with finals, and what time are we gonna get certain aspects of running the football program done, and then what is going to be our development during that time? How much are we going to practice what things we want to do? And so those are just all different ideas and different situations we’ve discussed as a sports performance staff and the football program, and I think we have a good plan in place.”

In year three of leading the program, Freeman fully expects Notre Dame to be a part of this year’s national championship picture. However, he is not focusing on the things that are out of his control, such as being unable to qualify for a first-round bye. For the Notre Dame head coach, he has his players solely focused on taking it one game at a time and concentrating on the task at hand. If they do so, Freeman could bring bad the national championship trophy to South Bend, IN, for the first time since 1988.