"Join a Conference!!!" = Jealousy

And nobody pretends otherwise.

When USC and UCLA bolted the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, every commentator in America shrugged and said, “Smart move.” More money, more exposure, more national games. Sensible. Strategic. Zero blame.

When Texas and Oklahoma packed up the moving van and headed to the SEC, the reaction was the same: “Smart move.” Get the bag. Secure the future. Maximize brand value. Good business.

But when Notre Dame — which has more athletic revenue and brand equity than any program in the nation not named Alabama or Ohio State — chooses not to join a conference, suddenly the chorus changes.

Now it’s:

“Join a conference!”“They don’t deserve a playoff shot!”“This is what they get!”

Let’s be honest: those arguments are just peanut butter and jealous. Notre Dame has the TV contract everyone else wishes they had. NBC didn’t leave them. The fans didn’t leave them. The ratings didn’t leave them. They didn’t realign because they didn’t have to. The program didn’t implode, the stadium didn’t empty, and the brand didn’t shrink. If anything, independence preserved what made Notre Dame valuable in the first place.

If other teams could pull off independence financially, they would. They can’t. So they join conferences and split TV money ten or twelve ways. Notre Dame doesn’t. If that makes people salty, that’s a them problem.

About that bowl game . . . Skipping an exhibition bowl — and that’s what these are now — was not only sensible, it was borderline enlightened.

• Players get time to heal instead of spending Christmas week getting concussed for a bowl named after a regional HVAC distributor.
• Coaches can recruit instead of preparing for a game nobody remembers 48 hours later.
• Staff can see their families.
• And boosters don’t have to fly to a city they only pretend to like because ESPN said it mattered.

Everyone wins. Except the “THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!!!” crowd on social media, who apparently believe 19-year-olds owe them a postseason performance in perpetuity.Tulane and James Madison? Let’s be serious. Tulane is a fine institution. James Madison is a fine institution. Their fans should be proud. But nobody, and I mean nobody who is not already three drinks deep into a glass of Notre Dame haterade, believes these teams field better football programs than Notre Dame.

If the goal of the College Football Playoff is to select the best teams in America, then anyone arguing Tulane and JMU belong ahead of Notre Dame needs to turn in their voter card and pick up a foam finger from the bargain bin.

The CFP isn’t driven by money? Fascinating.

On the bright side, the CFP selection committee has finally demonstrated that their decisions are not driven exclusively by financial incentives. Because if money were the driving force, Notre Dame — with its national ratings, enormous alumni base, and unmatched brand power — would be treated like a golden lottery ticket, not a scheduling inconvenience. Instead, Notre Dame got squeezed out while realignment refugees with shiny new conference affiliations got rewarded.

Fascinating indeed.

Frag out.

Notre Dame didn’t get punished for scheduling, for results, or for talent. They got punished for being independent — the same independence that makes the program valuable, marketable, and stable. If Texas, Oklahoma, USC, and UCLA can make business decisions without being labeled unworthy, so can Notre Dame.

And if the selection committee wants credibility, maybe don’t pretend Tulane and JMU are suddenly titans of the sport. Until then?

Frag out.