Notre Dame, the BCS Tournament and the Greatest Threat to Football Independence

It is no secret that Notre Dame has clung to football independence over the years. But ever complicated times with more involved interactions amongst a constantly expanding number of players have the potential to render Notre Dame's football independence as horrifically outdated.

Once upon a time, when football on television was in its infancy, there were only a couple of games broadcast nationally on a weekly basis. There was the national game of the week between two contending powerhouses that were each in national-title contention and the Notre Dame game.

The Irish have enjoyed a national media monopoly in college football since the barnstorming days of Knute Rockne and the coast-to-coast dominance of the Rock and Leahey.

Since the merger of ABC/Disney and ESPN, the landscape has changed.

Every Saturday, there are games on at noon, 3:30 and 8 p.m. on ABC, ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPNU and ESPN News. CBS carries at least one game, as do most FOX Sports channels. Add to that the Tuesday night, Thursday night and often a Friday night game, and you are routinely finding nationally televised games between Akron and Eastern Michigan.

Consider also that there is now a regional network for virtually every major conference, and it becomes clear that simply having every game on television is no longer such a rarity nor a recruiting tool.

Notre Dame's schedule also used to be a unique advantage.

Originally, the school's football program hoped for admission into what became the Big Ten. Geographically, it was a fit, and Notre Dame regularly scheduled Big Ten schools as competition.

However, a bitter Fielding Yost, architect of the Michigan football lore, nearly singlehandedly prevented the Irish from scheduling Big Ten opponents for nearly the entirety of his career. With all regional doors closed, Notre Dame had to have much more creativity in scheduling.

The barnstorming era of Notre Dame football began, and truly, the modern age of college football began along with it.

The Irish began traveling coast to coast, playing Army in New York and Southern California and Stanford on the West Coast. Notre Dame became a visible commodity across the country, a winning commodity that was attractive to top recruits from every region.

Today, while Notre Dame still plays coast to coast, the allure is not as great.

Many schools travel. Some conferences span thousands of miles. Games are broadcast nationally and available for replay on ESPN.com.

Suddenly, college-football recruiting has become a different game. A game where weather matters. Where kids are sold on dreams of the NFL. Where potentially a conference championship means something.

Notre Dame now finds itself in an uphill battle for most recruits. The school itself is academically challenging, much more so than most other top football institutions.

The campus is breathtaking, but covered in snow three months of the year. It is also located in a mid-sized Indiana city surrounded by cows and corn rather than the excitement of Los Angeles or the sunny skies of Florida.

The last thing that Notre Dame has to sell recruits on is the notion that the Fighting Irish strive to play for national championships every year.

Still. it's been 24 years since the Irish hoisted that trophy.

Now, the playing field may be tilting even further.

There is no longer any doubt that after this year's BCS championship, the current system will be abandoned in favor of some form of playoff.

The most likely scenario is a four-team bracket comprised of conference champions ranked in the Top Six. If conference champions cannot fill those slots, at-large teams from the Top Six will be admitted.

The issue with this plan is that there is a scenario where an undefeated Notre Dame team could be left out of the championship tournament.

For the sake of argument, let's say that the Irish run the table next year, beating Michigan, USC and Oklahoma.

Pretend that Notre Dame represents the only loss on the schedule of those three teams, who then each win their conference-championship games.

If Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney's plan is adopted, the SEC winner, who will without a doubt be ranked No. 1 or No. 2, will be in. A 12-win Michigan, USC and Oklahoma team winning their respective conferences will also without a doubt be ranked in the Top Six.

Notre Dame is out. No playoff. No hope of a championship.

The blow that losing control of playing for a title could deliver may be the straw that breaks the camel's back, driving Notre Dame into a conference where at least it could have a shot at controlling its own destiny.

Forget for a moment that expanding conferences look more and more likely to create four "super conferences" that carry more clout, and forget that teams playing a potential 10-game conference schedule will be unlikely to schedule tough non-conference games, and you might still see a glimmer of hope for continuing tradition.

It certainly feels that the glimmer gets dimmer and dimmer with each passing year.