(05-04-2021 04:33 PM)Crayton Wrote:  I honestly mulled over the Notre Dame situation for a whole day (in my spare time). I could see a Notre Dame-specific rule returning where they qualify for the bye. But in the end I decided this was most fair and perhaps even still favors Notre Dame, who gets the #12 seed in those years.

Note that a "Notre Dame specific rule" never has to mention Notre Dame. It simply has to specify that an A5 Conference Champion is seeded above any member of an A5 conference who did not win their championship.

Pro forma, that allows any FBS school, including Go5 schools and independents, a chance at a first round bye ... it's just that there is only one school that has more than a remote chance of grabbing that spot.