SOUTH BEND, Ind. – There are a lot of things wrong with college football.
You’ve heard the grievances, the complaints and the complaining. The transfer portal and NIL. Unfair resource gaps and an unregulated compensation system.
There are many things to complain about, festering issues that need to be examined, problems that need to be solved.
But Friday night was not one of them.
From snow-covered northern Indiana, amid frigid temperatures in a packed 94-year-old stadium, college football — the entity whose off-field engine still runs — delivered a spectacular story to millions across the country : a Campus Playoff Game.
Glorious. Fantastic. Amazing.
Roaring crowds. Marching bands. College kids.
The Golden Dome. Jesus lands. The linebackers room.
Let the record show that, in the first game of the 12-team College Football Playoff, seventh-seeded Notre Dame beat tenth-seeded Indiana, 27-17, in front of a frenzied crowd in the middle of a full campus. .
This is where the college football postseason belongs. This is where college football lives, where it thrives. It was born in this place, on a sprawling campus as an extracurricular activity (it’s true) for athletic students. And just because the sport’s popularity turned it into a billion-dollar business, just because federal judges and state legislators are turning it into a more professional entity, doesn’t mean college football should lose the greatest gift it offers: colleague.
It’s in the name, for God’s sake. College football on college campuses in college football playoff games. What innovative thinking!
Notre Dame even moved finals up a day so students could spend Thursday night and Friday afternoon preparing before the big fight. They did it. This writer witnessed many of them, drinking $7, 32-ounce Bud Lights at the city’s famous Linebacker Lounge.
This place was rowdy, even if it was frozen.
At 7 a.m. on Friday, 13 hours before the start of the game, dozens of vehicles formed a line to access the campus. At noon, those who were following very closely put up their tents. They smoked marinated meats and drank Miller High Lifes. They high-fived, hugged, and huddled together for warmth.
Inside the school’s basketball field, athletic director Pete Bevacqua gestured from his office window as fans paraded through the snow. Maybe, he half-jokingly suggested, it’s not so bad that Notre Dame, in this playoff format, isn’t eligible as an independent for a first-round bye.
“We’ll keep the game at home,” he smiled.
This is all. This is what it’s about. This is glorious.
we have never seen this before: a real college football playoff clash on a college campus. How many years were wasted? How many seasons have already passed? We could have had this much sooner.
The NFL, its big stadiums, its big cities, its subways, have nothing to do with this. Sure, the Irish and the Hoosiers produced a flop on the field — the highlight being running back Jeremiyah Love’s 98-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. But the atmosphere, the winter weather, the pageantry of it all, that’s where it is.
And we have three more on Saturday! First in State College, where the wind chill is expected to drop to 10 degrees for Penn State vs. SMU. And then Austin, where the SEC’s rookie Longhorns meet ACC power Clemson under sunny skies. And finally in Columbus, where the Big Ten and SEC giants tangle in 20-degree temperatures for Ohio State vs. Tennessee.
Maybe they will offer a more exciting show.
The Irish did to Indiana what Ohio State did last month: smother the Hoosiers’ potent offense with a mix of coverage and pressure. They shook quarterback Kurtis Rourke, limiting him to less than 180 yards passing. They made IU look like a bunch of Group of Five guys wandering down one of the easiest paths of any playoff team.
Their coach also seemed out of his usual element. It was a somewhat baffling game plan from Curt Cignetti, the trash-talking man who has coached all season like he talks: bold and brash. Not Friday. Running on third and long? Fair kickoffs? Lose 17 points near midfield in the fourth quarter?
In emphatic fashion, Notre Dame crushed the Hoosiers’ magical run, not allowing a touchdown until 87 seconds remained on the clock. The Irish ended Cignetti’s impressive first season and won their 11th straight since that confusing home loss to Northern Illinois. They hit and punched their state rival in the most unexpected matchup: two schools three hours apart that haven’t played since 1991.
They did it all in front of a roaring crowd, and most stayed until the bitter, cold end despite a boring blowout (Notre Dame held leads of 20-3 and 27-3 in the second half).
“I’ve never been a part of an environment like that,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said.
The Jumbotron displayed its typical home gaming antics. At one point, a singing gerbil in an elf hat wooed the crowd. A priest holding a microphone (yes, a priest) played “Mo Bamba.” And Jerome Bettis: the bus! – encouraged fans in a speech on the field at halftime.
All of this left one athletic director publicly wondering why his own playoff-bound team doesn’t have a chance to host a game.
“Watching this Notre Dame game at home…” Boise State athletic director Jeramiah Dickey tweeted. “A game in BLUE would be elite.”
In fact, it would be.
But the quarterfinals are not played in university venues but in bowls in the main cities and three of them in covered stadiums. That also applies to the semi-finals.
In a world with so many opt-outs and coaching changes, the future of the bowl structure remains a murky and uncertain topic. But the future venues for playoff games? This weekend can show us that they belong on campus.
However, it is not that simple. University leaders face a delicate balance. There is history and tradition to preserve, and rightly so. Bowl games are one of the hallmarks of the industry, the dense jersey fabric of college football.
When college football struggled financially (there was a time), it was the bowl games that provided a platform and finances. We must not leave them aside.
All 10 FBS conferences have reached agreements with the six bowl games for the CFP’s future, which extends through the 2031 playoffs. However, those agreements have yet to be executed or signed beyond the playoffs of 2025. A change in the playoff format is on the horizonbut should there be changes on the horizon for playoff sites as well?
Shirtless students shivering in the cold? A snow-covered campus? Those $7 beers? This is where it is.
“It’s crazy,” Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard said as he looked out over the stadium. “Special place.”
History was made here. We will always remember it.
It was the unlikely culmination of a nearly 50-year effort to hold a multi-round college football playoff, an industry in which the postseason has been monopolized by the bowl structure and constrained by the academic calendar.
At least five times since 1976, college football and NCAA leaders have not approved such an expanded playoff. Since this particular format was introduced, it took more than three years to manifest it into this glorious spectacle on campus with the assistance of one of the main architects of the format. Former Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick, who retired last spring, attended his first Irish game this season and saw a dream come true before him.
He was part of a four-member committee that created the format in 2021 and was essential to achieving a key compromise on the proposal. He agreed to a deal that made Notre Dame ineligible for a first-round bye, a trade-off so that, as an independent, the school would not have to compete in a conference championship game.
This year’s prize? A home game expected to generate $40 million in economic impact in the South Bend area. And it also came with snow. The flurries began falling on the eve of the game Thursday night and covered the school campus in a blanket of white.
Dressed in their big coats, ski hats and wool gloves, fans filled Notre Dame Stadium when the gates opened 90 minutes before kickoff. Nearly every seat was filled in time for venue announcer Chris Ackles to shout to the cold crowd: “Welcome to Notre Dame Stadium,” he said before pausing. “And welcome to the College Football Playoffs!”
When kickoff came, temperatures dropped below zero. At first the temperature was 27 degrees and the wind chill was 19 degrees.
The Golden Domers didn’t care. More than 77,000 people flocked here despite ticket prices soaring to four figures when the field was announced two weeks ago.
Now the weather is much warmer. The Irish (12-1) face SEC champion Georgia (11-2), likely playing without their starting quarterback, in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. The quarterfinal match begins on the evening of New Year’s Day, in a closed, temperature-controlled environment in a large city miles from the participants’ own campuses.