This past season as a member of the ACC, Notre Dame played three top-25 teams: Clemson (twice, #1 and #3) and UNC (#19). It also played #1 Alabama in the CFP, but I will not count that for the sake of the discussion. Last year, as an independent, ND played #3 Georgia, #18 Virginia, #19 Michigan and #23 Navy. In 2018, when it last went undefeated, ND played #14 Michigan, #7 Stanford, #24 Virginia Tech and #12 Syracuse. Finally, in 2017, ND played #15 Georgia, #11 USC, #14 NC State, #7 Miami and #21 Stanford.

I get why many remain frustrated and agitated why Notre Dame appears to get special considerations, but - as an independent - there clearly is substantial and consistent annual opportunities for Notre Dame to play many top-25 teams. In fact, I would argue that there is greater opportunity to have a more difficult schedule playing its independent schedule (between travel, style of play and quality of play) than it would to be playing an annual ACC schedule - and those are all known challenges that the school and program willingly accept in order to not just compete for a CFP position, but also maintain their brand and identity as well.

Similarly, as it relates to BYU, they played two top-25 teams this year (Coastal Carolina and Boise State). Last year, they were able to play four (#14 Utah, #24 USC, #22 Washington and #14 Boise State). In 2018, they played three (#6 Wisconsin, #11 Washington and #18 Utah). If BYU had run the table, I do not think they would have made the playoff, but they would have definitely been under consideration for the NY6 slot (tough to argue between them and Cincinnati, although I think Cincinnati would have undoubtedly made it as the rep). Neither BYU nor ND are prevented from playing enough top-25 programs in order to run the table and be under strong consideration for a CFP spot. Both can safely and securely maintain independence, and compete for the CFP, until the P5/TV networks choose to move towards an automatic conference berth for the playoff (which, for many reasons, I do not foresee happening anytime soon).