UHND.com - Notre Dame Football, Basketball, & Recruiting

As I noted above, I don't like 4 auto-bids for each, because it dismisses the cyclical nature of the history of this sport. The Big 12 and A.C.C. have both had seasons/eras in which their Top 4 was as good or better than at least 1 of the Big Ten or the S.E.C.

That said, at 16 teams even with this entitlement situation those conferences want, if we aren't clearly one of the best 3 teams after 4 from the Big 10, 4 from the S.E.C., 2 from the A.C.C., 2 from the Big 12, and some Group of 5 add-in have been slotted, we aren't really a playoff team. I do agree with you that the window is tight at 14, but you might make the same argument here.....if the 5th-place Big 10/S.E.C. team or 3rd-place A.C.C./Big 12 team is even arguably a better choice than Notre Dame, I don't know that we're a playoff-quality team.