Future of CFB

Following this most recent College Football National Championship, many viewers wondered why the runner-up, Notre Dame, was considered an “independent” team while teams like Ohio State University and The University of Texas are all part of conferences, BIG-10 and SEC respectively. College football conferences have long played a crucial role in shaping the sport and have become embedded in recent memory as the only obvious and viable path.

Historically, these conferences helped create order in a chaotic and often dangerous game, helping teams band together and form stronger business deals by conglomerating. By the 1890s, major institutions formed the Western Conference (now the BIG-10) to promote academic ties and regulate competition, many other schools and institutions soon followed seeing the benefits. However, Notre Dame—a small, private, and heavily Catholic school—found itself excluded from its conference, the ACC, due to a mix of its independent spirit and anti-Catholic bias.

In the 1980s, the landscape of college football shifted dramatically when a lawsuit led by independent teams and conferences challenged the NCAA’s control over television rights. Previously, the NCAA had restricted TV broadcasts to balance competition, but the court ruled against them, allowing teams and conferences to negotiate their own deals. This ruling paved the way for Notre Dame to capitalize on its national brand by striking an exclusive, independent television deal with NBC, a contract that remains in place today.

Fast forward to today, Notre Dame’s independence offers significant financial advantages. Unlike conference-affiliated schools, which must split revenue among their members, Notre Dame keeps most of its earnings. The program receives over ten million dollars annually from NBC for its home game television rights. Additionally, for qualifying for the College Football Playoff, the program gets four million dollars, with additional payouts for advancing further. After reaching the National Championship, Notre Dame reached a total earnings of $20 million dollars from playoff payouts alone. 

To put this into perspective, the 2025 national champion, Ohio State, would have to split its twenty million dollar College Football Playoff earnings among the eighteen Big Ten members, resulting in a payout of roughly $1.1 million dollars per school. While Ohio State benefits from additional revenue streams, the stark difference in direct earnings illustrates why Notre Dame remains committed to its independent status and why this is becoming an issue and conversation topic amongst the college football scene. 

The rise of name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals and the continued consolidation of TV rights could lead to more teams considering independence. Schools with massive fan bases and strong brands, like Texas and Alabama, could follow Notre Dame’s model. Selling their television rights independently could yield higher profits than conference revenue-sharing models allow.

However, independence is not without its drawbacks. Smaller programs benefit from shared conference revenue, which helps them remain competitive. The growing financial disparity could further concentrate power among elite programs, making it harder for smaller schools to grow. Furthermore, NIL deals already favor major programs, and independence could amplify the business-first nature of college football, shifting the sport further from its traditional roots.

College football is evolving into an increasingly business-driven enterprise. From lucrative NIL deals to independent teams maximizing their earning potential, the sport is shifting away from traditional conference structures. Yet, Notre Dame remains a unique case—rooted in history, yet continuously adapting. The Fighting Irish have long defied convention, and as the college football landscape changes, their ability to balance innovation with tradition will keep them at the center of the sport’s future.