Mitch Jeter’s 41 yard game winning field goal was right on the money – in more ways than one. As it flew off his foot and sailed through the uprights, some Irish fans celebrated with tears in their eyes while watching Notre Dame stamp its ticket to their first national championship appearance since 2013. But Notre Dame Athletic Director Pete Bevacqua likely had dollar signs in his eyes as he watched the final seconds of their Orange Bowl victory over Penn State last Thursday night.

Notre Dame has secured $20 million in total postseason payouts from the College Football Playoff as they’ve made their run to the championship. Unlike their conference-member competitors, they get to keep the entire payout for themselves. Much has been made about this on ESPN and other national media outlets – and for good reason – it’s a massive amount of money to earn for a program that does not rely on conference revenue sharing to ensure its financial future. But it is difficult for the average college football fan to understand what this may mean for Notre Dame’s long term future without putting this payoff in the context of their competitor’s earnings, both from the playoff and their conferences’ multi-billion dollar television deals. 

Notre Dame’s Immediate Future

It did not take long for Pete Bevacqua to firmly commit to keeping the football program independent: 

“…we like the freedom, quite frankly, it gives us. The fact we were able to play Navy at Metlife and had the Shamrock Series against Army at Yankee Stadium, that we can continue that great rivalry with USC – we really get to move around the map and keep that very national presence”, Bevacqua told ESPN on Friday while discussing the plans to keep Notre Dame independent. 

The Notre Dame football program has a long history playing a wide range of programs from all over the country. They have a very long list of historical “rivals” – including USC, Michigan, Navy, Army, Purdue, Michigan State, and others depending on the era (such as former independents Miami and Penn State). Previously, it seemed likely the Irish would be in the market for a conference before long when they entered into a scheduling agreement with the ACC. In the agreement, they are contractually obligated to schedule 5 ACC opponents per year until 2037 – sharing TV revenue with the ACC for all those games. If you ask some old-school Irish fans, even this is looked down upon as it leaves less room on the 12 game schedule to rekindle some of the old-school rivalries they watched growing up.

At this point it seemed financial benefits of conference membership were getting too difficult to pass up, especially in a sport where revenues and on-field success are becoming increasingly correlated. However, it is important to those entrenched in the mystique of Notre Dame football to remain independent, if only in name. As Bevacqua said, a full conference schedule would take the freedom to schedule who they want, where they want, and when they want away from them almost entirely. But even more than that, it would be a huge departure from tradition for maybe the most history-oriented program in the country. Moving Notre Dame to a conference would not only be frustrating for alumni and long-time fans, it would be hugely disappointing to college football fans that appreciate the unique role that history and tradition play in the fan experience.  And in a sport that is increasingly facing allegations of placing money over the good of the game, it would be just the latest example. 

Now, this run in the CFP combined with the $50 million per year TV deal Notre Dame has in place with NBC allows for the administration at Notre Dame to reaffirm their commitment to independence in the immediate future, and allow them to negotiate deals from a position of strength in the next few years. But unfortunately for those that favor independence, this is likely not the final time questions about Notre Dame’s independence will surface. 

How does Notre Dame’s payout differ from other semi-finalists?

Notre Dame will have a definitive advantage in postseason payouts compared to their fellow semifinalists. Their National Championship opponent, Ohio State, will take home only $2.5 million for their performance in the playoffs this year, whether they win the national championship or not. In fact, perennial basement dwellers Rutgers and Maryland will also receive a $2.5 million bonus from the playoff this year. This is because the Big Ten does not provide any rewards to individual teams for postseason success. Any payouts earned by Ohio State, Penn State, Oregon and Indiana are paid directly to the Big Ten, and then divided equally amongst the 18 member institutions. Using previously published bowl game payouts, all Big Ten schools will gain an estimated $2-2.5 million from the 2024/2025 non-playoff bowl games played by other schools in the conference. All-in, each Big Ten team will collect somewhere in the range of $5 million in postseason payouts. However, even with the additional shared revenue, this still keeps Ohio State over $15 million shy of Notre Dame’s payout, even if they should best the Irish on Monday night. 

The SEC has a more favorable deal for postseason success than the Big Ten. The SEC rewards the individual playoff teams with payouts ranging from, $3-3.75 million as they advance through the tournament. Due to these payouts, Texas will end up with about $10.25 million in bonuses from their College Football Playoff run. While this is a big improvement over the numbers for the Big Ten teams, it is barely half of what Notre Dame will take home for their run. 

How big of an edge is independence, really? 

When comparing cash flows as it pertains to conferences, the 2 biggest considerations are TV deals and postseason payouts – these are the biggest draws to the universities. While Notre Dame has a clear advantage over conference members when it comes to its payouts from the CFB Playoff, there are some considerable drawbacks to Notre Dame’s independence that have not really been mentioned in the reports about their postseason success. Notre Dame has its own TV deal with NBC, paying them around $50 million per year. In addition to that, they receive a payment of about $12 million per year from ESPN’s deal to broadcast all 11 CFB Playoff games each year. Add the $20 million payout from the playoff games and the total comes to about $82 million for this season. This is a huge number – but if you look across the college football landscape, the $20 million payout only draws Notre Dame even with their national championship rival, Ohio State. 

The Big Ten signed an enormous 7-year, $7 billion contract with CBS, NBC and Fox to televise their conference games through the 2029-2030 season, which is the same time Notre Dame’s deal with NBC expires. This contract targets $80-$100 million payouts to each school in the later years of the contract. In addition, all conference-members get a $21 million payout for the ESPN deal to televise the playoffs. Compare these numbers to Notre Dame’s total revenues and suddenly the playoff windfall doesn’t seem quite as big of an advantage to Notre Dame as it once did. Another potentially worrying trend is the concentration of power within the Big Ten and SEC. These two conferences split about 60% of the revenue from ESPN’s TV agreement for the playoff broadcasts. This results in significantly larger payments guaranteed every year for their members, even those that have never sniffed a playoff game. And all of this comes just in time for the introduction of direct payment from schools to athletes for the first time in NCAA history. Starting with the 2025 football season, the revenues from these deals brokered by the Big Ten will be able to go towards roster construction. This makes the dollars and cents of these agreements more important to the on-field product than they’ve ever been previously. From a planning and budgeting perspective, knowing what your revenues are going to be 5 or 6 years from now – regardless of on-field success – allows for effective budgeting for roster construction, facilities investments, and coaching salaries, all while maintaining the financial health of the program. Here lies the advantage of power conference membership. 

While Notre Dame is unlikely  to face any major financial struggles, they could eventually struggle to make up for the collective bargaining power that comes with membership in a Big Ten or SEC. 

The Irish have done exceptionally well, both on the field and from a revenue perspective, and they have shown no need for conference membership to this point; but their independent model is not guaranteed to be successful indefinitely. The playoff payouts are an interesting headline-grabber heading into the National Championship game on Monday night, but this is a story that will continue to develop for years to come for Notre Dame football and its fans.