Notre Dame Football: 3 reasons Irish will never make playoff as Independent

1. Consistently tough schedule

Being an Independent is tough even in real life. You go into the real world and have to make decisions for yourself — you can’t lean on your parents to save you when you make mistakes.

Being in a conference is like having your parents there to save you when you make mistakes. You might not always need them, but it’s a crutch that Notre Dame doesn’t have so it has to consistently schedule a tough schedule, because if they play a cupcake schedule, the Fighting Irish wouldn’t get any respect from the committee.

This year, the Irish scheduled Georgia, which was ranked No. 15 at the time, Michigan State, USC, which was ranked No. 11, North Carolina State, which was ranked No. 14, and No 7 Miami. They lost to Georgia (SEC) and Miami (ACC) and still have a games remaining against Navy and Stanford, both very capable teams. While they played five members of the ACC they aren’t a member in football so to get props from the committee they have to take solid chances all year.

Next: Projected Week 12 CFB Playoff Rankings

No conference, no crutch and it hurts the Fighting Irish.