Marcus Freeman states Notre Dame views independent status as 'a positive thing'

In 2025, there will only be two FBS schools that are still Independent in football, UConn and Notre Dame. For the Irish, it’s part of the program’s identity that figures like head coach Marcus Freeman view as a unique and positive aspect of the team.

Despite that, there is often criticism of Notre Dame for being Independent. Most recently, that came from Penn State head coach James Franklin ahead of the Orange Bowl. Still, Freeman pushed back and remained positive about Notre Dame’s lack of a conference.

“I view it as a pro and we’ll continue to look at it that way unless something changes,” Marcus Freeman said. “We get to play coast to coast. You play multiple different teams from multiple different conferences. You started off the season in College Station. You ended the season in LA, and we’re in New York twice. So, we get to really view our program as global in terms of a national program, in terms of how we play, and the audience we play in front of. Now, it’s not much different than the Big Ten now, with UCLA and USC and some of the West Coast teams being in it.”

Notre Dame has an agreement with the ACC to play five games a year with that conference while other sports, like basketball, are in that conference. Part of that deal dictates the Irish would need to join the ACC if they were to join a conference. They did so, briefly, in 2020, and played for the ACC Championship.

“But again, we view being independent as a positive thing, and we sell it to our recruits and our players as a positive thing,” Freeman said.

In the current College Football Playoff format, Notre Dame can’t earn a first round bye because they can’t be a conference champion. However, that isn’t a deterrent for Notre Dame.

“We know we can’t play in a championship game and we can’t have a first-round bye,” Freeman said. “But we continue to use not playing week 13 as our bye, and that’s the way we view it. In terms of the finances and the TV deals, I’m sure that Pete Bevacqua can go into further details about that, but, obviously, I’m sure that’s another positive that we view being independent provides us.”

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

At their joint Orange Bowl press conference, James Franklin made his comments calling for all teams to be in a conference in front of Marcus Freeman.

“Obviously you talk about the differences between our two programs and conferences. 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. 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.”