Join a conference! Notre Dame has no other choice after CFP snub

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish were snubbed on Sunday when the College Football Playoff committee revealed their final rankings. Miami leaped ND despite both teams being inactive. The simple answer for the committee's decision was head-to-head results. The Hurricanes beat the Irish 14 weeks ago and despite the Irish playing better down the stretch, H2H was enough, right? Let's be real here. Head-to-head was the excuse the committee could conveniently lean on. The ultimate decision was almost certainly based on which team had the protection of a conference and which didn't.

The committee has never left out a Power Four conference from the field. Virginia's ACC title game to Duke put the conference on a knife's edge, a millimeter away from having no representative. Miami saved them from that fate. It's convenient to side with head-to-head over analytics and the eye test when you've got conference leadership breathing down your next. Notre Dame doesn't have that.

The Irish have long clung to independence, refusing to join a conference even as the rest of college football stumbled over themselves to realign in increasingly incomprehensible ways. Notre Dame's decision has now come back to haunt them. And college football fans don't feel sorry for them in the slightest.

'Join a conference!' college football collectively shouts at Notre Dame

"JOIN A CONFERENCE" was trending on social media after the CFP bracket announcement. And fans joined the pile on with glee.

The "join a conference" mantra isn't exactly new, but it's louder than ever and it feels like the committee stepped forward and gave everyone in the crowd a bullhorn.

Notre Dame would've been in the CFP as a member of the ACC or Big Ten

If Notre Dame had joined the ACC when they were being courted, they likely win the conference this year and guarantee their spot in the 12-team field. If they had joined the Big Ten, they might have still lost two games, but the Big Ten's clout might have been enough to hold the ACC at bay.

Unfortunately for Notre Dame, their brand doesn't count for enough now that power across college football has consolidated with the Power Four, specifically the Big Ten and SEC. They're on their own, which has been an advantage over the years, but now it's a clear disadvantage. There's strength in numbers.

Amid all the trolling were legitimate explanations for Notre Dame's current predicament.

Notre Dame's problems don't end with the CFP snub

Will Notre Dame actually join a conference? I have my doubts, because expansion to a 16-team field would prevent this kind of outcome just as well. At the same time, the complications wrought by super conferences could continue to have major consequences. USC already wants to move their annual rivalry game to the beginning of the season so they're better equipped to tackle the Big Ten schedule. And if Notre Dame doesn't budge on it, it feels like the Trojans are content to end the rivalry all together. The example of the Irish being snubbed for a Week 1 head-to-head loss is only more reason for USC to sacrifice the rivalry at the feet of the CFP selection process.

If the rivalry with USC ends, that's one less quality opponent on the schedule each year. Notre Dame has gotten aggressive in their scheduling recently, but what's stopping the likes of Texas, Alabama, Indiana, Florida and Michigan from pulling out of those non-conference matchups?

The Longhorns got burned by losing to Ohio State to begin the season. Despite one of the top strengths of schedule in the country, their three losses disqualified them from the playoff. Why schedule Notre Dame when you can be like Ole Miss, playing Georgia State, Tulane, Washington State and The Citadel and still get in? After all, Texas A&M was one bad call away from losing to Notre Dame and landing in the danger zone themselves.

Despite all the bells and whistles, the committee has always fallen back on one clear differentiator: W-L record. Teams may start to figure out that a win over Notre Dame isn't worth the risk of having the Irish beat them, unnecessarily dropping into the 10-2 or 9-3 range.

Notre Dame has gotten away with living in the past for a long time. It's time for them to join the rest of CFB in the modern age.