{"id":584467,"date":"2026-04-14T22:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T22:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/584467\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T22:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T22:21:08","slug":"marcus-freeman-reveals-what-would-lead-notre-dame-to-joining-a-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/584467\/","title":{"rendered":"Marcus Freeman reveals what would lead Notre Dame to joining a conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2025 season was a massively disappointing one for head coach Marcus Freeman<\/a> and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Notre Dame opened the season with back-to-back losses to Miami<\/a> and Texas A&M<\/a> (both of which made the College Football Playoff), then rattled off 10 consecutive wins to close out the season with a 10-2 record. However, the Irish were tabbed as the First Team Out of the Playoff, ending Notre Dame\u2018s season completely.<\/p>\n

Following the snub, many claimed that not being in a conference was Notre Dame\u2018s downfall. Because it suffered two early losses, it didn\u2019t quite have the opportunity to build a Playoff-caliber resume due to its competition. Just five of the teams Notre Dame defeated went on to play in a bowl game.<\/p>\n

Marcus Freeman laughs at question regarding Notre Dame joining a conference<\/p>\n

Because of this controversy that arises every single season around the program, Taylor Lewan<\/a> of Bussin\u2019 With The Boys<\/a> finally asked Freeman the age old answer; would Notre Dame ever consider joining a conference?<\/p>\n

\u201cReally?\u201d Freeman asked with a chuckle and a sigh after being asked the question. \u201cI think there\u2019s advantages to being in a conference, and there\u2019s advantages not being in a conference. There\u2019s a lot of positive things that trust me, nobody was complaining about when we made the Playoffs the year before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Independents\u2026 we look at it as a positive. Listen, we lost two games and didn\u2019t make the Playoffs. So, if our administration ever feels like we are truly at a competitive disadvantage by not being in a conference, I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll join a conference. But, we just shouldn\u2019t have lost two games. Simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being an Independent makes the one or two massive games the Irish play every regular season extremely important. Notre Dame won both of those games (No. 20 Texas A&M<\/a> and No. 15 Louisville<\/a>) in 2024 and cruised to the College Football Playoff, even though it lost a shocker at home to Northern Illinois<\/a> in Week 2. The Irish went on to make an appearance in the College Football Playoff National Championship that season, where it fell to Ohio State.<\/p>\n

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the effect it had on the sports world, Notre Dame joined the Atlantic Coast Conference for a season in 2020. The Irish compiled a 10-2 record and were selected to the College Football Playoff, leading many to believe the fit could be permanent. However, that was not the case, and Notre Dame continues to be one of two Independents remaining in FBS (UConn<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025 season was a massively disappointing one for head coach Marcus Freeman and the Notre Dame Fighting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,171205,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-584467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-marcus-freeman-04-wayne","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}