Saturday Blitz
Fansided

Gary Pinkel to Notre Dame: Join a league if you want to make Playoff

By Patrick Schmidt

facebooktwitterreddit

Missouri Tigers head coach Gary Pinkel has a message for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish if they want to be considered for the College Football Playoff.

Gary Pinkel is only a few days removed from speaking to the press after the Missouri head coach was at SEC Media Days last week.

Related: Top 15 Head Coaches Without A National Title

As part of ESPN’s non-stop attempts to prove they’re bias toward the SEC, the league’s head coaches went through the ESPN “car wash” today as they appeared on SportsCenter and other programming in addition to appearing on ESPN radio.

Pinkel used to coach in the Big 12 with Missouri where Big 12 Media Days are currently underway and where conference expansion is a topic up for debate due to the lack of a conference championship game, something Pinkel believes all Power 5 conferences need to have.

That’s not a scorching hot sports take and something that has been repeated from people even in the Big 12, but his next take was a scorcher when he said Notre Dame needs to join a conference if they want to be considered for the Playoff.

First reaction to Pinkel’s comments are what does the NFL have to do with this?

My second reaction was he shouldn’t be calling out Notre Dame considering they routinely play one of the nation’s toughest schedules and play nine teams from Power 5 conferences this year compared to eight for Missouri.

So despite playing in the SEC, which is the best conference in the nation, according to SEC coaches, players and their fans, it’s Notre Dame who has a tougher road to the Playoff than Pinkel despite being an Independent.

Notre Dame could go undefeated and be a slam dunk pick for the Playoff whether Pinkel likes it or not and that will always be the case, because excluding a team from being eligible based on conference affiliation or lack thereof doesn’t hold any weight.

Pinkel’s point about conference championship games are a valid one, but he just went too far with his Notre Dame comments.

More from Saturday Blitz

Home/College Football News