1) There are some forces who DON'T want ND to join a conference. One is the SEC. The other is the would-be loser if ND wouldn't pick them as a conference destination if it came down to ACC vs. B1G. It is Nixonian triangulation at its best for ND. 2) There is a simple solution to this problem that you bring up that doesn't single out ND. There were five other teams who sat at home conference championship weekend who made the CFP-12. So it isn't just an ND issue. Here is the plan: Have any team in consideration by the committee that is NOT in a CCG play a play-in game on conference championship weekend. The winners of the play-in games get automatic bids. Then the committee can take x amount of champions, and x amount of CCG losers to fill out the bracket. This will be a particularly great model if they go to 16 teams and don't give byes. It will mean that everyone will play the same amount of games that make the field. And that everyone will have to win 4 CFP games in the field to lift the trophy. So let's say you had 5 play-in games conference championship weekend. It might have looked something like this (based on the Week 15 poll): USC at Oregon Utah at Ole Miss Vanderbilt at Texas A&M Texas at Oklahoma Miami at Notre Dame I would even go as far as to shuffle the deck to avoid rematches as long as the Top 5 ranked teams get a home game. Vanderbilt at Oregon Utah at Ole Miss USC at Texas A&M Miami at Oklahoma Texas at Notre Dame This would result in more football, and less meddling by the committee. A win-win.