Throughout the college football playoff, many media pundits have questioned whether Notre Dame should be allowed to stay an independent program considering their success this bowl season that may have stemmed from not having to play in a conference championship.
On Friday’s edition of The Herd, Cowherd broke down Notre Dame’s victory over Penn State on Thursday night in the Orange Bowl quite extensively.
Then, Cowherd specifically discussed the topic of Notre Dame being an independent program, detailing that he is happy that Notre Dame and other schools are allowed to remain independent programs to maintain the “quirkiness” of college football compared to the NFL.
The only problem is that Cowherd may not know the other schools who are independent in college football.
“They play at a different level,” Cowherd said of Notre Dame. “Not everybody needs to be homogenized. That’s one of the problems with pro basketball. All of the teams play the same. I like an independent. BYU is an independent. You have service academies. You have Notre Dame. Not everybody needs to be jammed into a massive conference. This is what I have been hoping college football would be. Looks more like the NFL playoff format but still some quirkiness with independents like BYU and Notre Dame.”
The schools that Cowherd listed as independents outside of Notre Dame are all actually in a conference for college football. BYU has been in the Big 12 since 2023, Army joined the American Athletic Conference in 2024 while Navy has been playing in the AAC since 2015. And Air Force has been a mainstay of the Mountain West Conference since its inception in 1999.
Cowherd also failed to mention the teams who are still independent outside of Notre Dame. Both UConn and UMass were independent schools for the 2024 season, though UMass is set to join the MAC in 2025.
Mistakes obviously happen to any on-air personality. Especially to those who are frequently discussing as many sports as Cowherd does on a daily basis.
But with that being said, it’s pretty hard to mistake teams like BYU, Army, and Navy as independents considering all three of these teams were near the top of their respective conferences, with Army in particular playing in the AAC Conference Championship game.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.