This has been quite the offseason for Notre Dame and coach Marcus Freeman. The College Football Playoff's decision to alter the seeding and first-round bye process for the 2025 season continues a string of wins for the Fighting Irish that includes an elite signing haul and the news of a 12-year partnership with Clemson for a future series that strengthens their stance as an independent program.

The College Football Playoff will go to a more straightforward way of filling the bracket next season, announcing Thursday that it will place teams strictly on where they are ranked instead of moving pieces around to reward conference champions.

The first obvious advantage is that if Notre Dame is a top four seed it will only have to win three games to win a national championship. Notre Dame won three games in the 2024-25 College Football Playoff, beating Indiana (27-17), Georgia (23-10) and Penn State (27-24), but those victories simply got the Irish to the national title game.