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On College Gameday:
Nick Saban:
“If these conference championship games impact who gets in the playoffs, then we should use a different metrics to figure out who’s in the conference championship game. ‘cause the best two teams in the ACC is Miami and Virgina, so they should be playing in the game.”

Chirs Fowler:
“If you did that in all conferences”, [presumably going with the contention that the highest ranked teams should play in conference championships] “it would be Georgia and Ole Miss.”

Nick Saban:
“That’s okay.”

Does anyone believe Ole will be in the playoffs if they were smacked by Georgia in the SEC Championship game without their head coach? Well, who knows.

To be clear, I am not saying that Notre Dame should consider joining a conference, and I am certainly not suggesting that if Notre Dame was boat raced in a conference championship game the way Alabama was that the committee would have had any hesitation to leave Notre Dame out of the playoffs.

Regarding all of these teams constantly whining about Notre Dame not being in a conference the thing to remember is that whenever and however their conferences are set up they themselves are responsible for choosing to join, not Notre Dame.

It is amazing how often they refer to teams in their own conferences, and teams they like, as being so much improved since the beginning of the year. “They have grown up—nobody wants to face them now”, but somehow Notre Dame is only compared to their first game of the season.

Have you heard the, “there is no way you can leave the second- best team in the conference out of the playoffs, just because they lost in the conference championship game, the conference championship has to mean something.”

Did the conference championship game mean something to Ole Miss?
Did the conference championship game mean something to Miami?
Did the conference championship game mean something to Oregon?
Did the conference championship game mean something to Texas A&M?
Did the conference championship game mean something to Oklahoma?

Notre Dame never once claimed that conference championships were so vital, but it is those that claimed they are and did not participate in one that are being rewarded.

The strangest statement of the weekend was uttered by a former Ohio State coach who said Notre Dame did not deserve to be in the playoff because they did not have a chance to play for a conference championship.

Did not playing in a conference championship end title hopes last year for Ohio State?
Is Ohio State going to forfeit their national title?

Notre Dame: With all that being said, and with the help of Our Lady, it is time now for us all to trust. Trust that Marcus Freeman believes whole heartedly in what he has preached and taught his team to do—it is time to choose hard. It is time to challenge everything. We were not a perfect team, but we had better chase that perfection or get darn near close to it. Get everyone on board, and reconfirm the commitment. Pete Bevacqua, Administration, Mike Martin, where are we lacking, and where can we get percentage points better? Challenge everyone and everything.