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Fox Sports
10 hours ago
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Tony Petitti Seeks More Meaningful Games In CFP Expansion: 'Bigger Is Better'
There aren't many things I'm more passionate about than the College Football Playoff. As discussions about expanding the playoff field continue, I've drawn my line in the sand on what should be done to help preserve the greatness of our sport. So, I decided to meet up with Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti in New York City recently and find out where his mind is at in playoff expansion talks for the most recent episode of "Big Noon Conversations." Petitti, along with SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, are among the two major power brokers in the CFP expansion discussion as several ideas have been thrown out there about expanding to 14 or 16 teams. Here are some highlights from my conversation with Petitti. Parts of this interview were edited for clarity and brevity. Klatt: As the commissioner of the Big Ten, what are your objectives for the future of the CFP and its format? Petitti: The first thing is, it goes right back to representing the Big Ten, because that's my job. There isn't a commissioner of college football, like you pointed out. So each of us, when we get in that room, we are looking at trying to work together to come to the right solution for all of us. But ultimately, my job is to represent the 18 institutions in the Big Ten — our football, our coaches, our players, the way we do things. We start from a place where we're not always going to be aligned. There might be different ideas in different conferences. We have an obligation to try to come together, to work these things out. But the goal for me, right from the beginning, I really felt strongly about this, and maybe it's my experience coming from MLB, I really believe that you've got to have a postseason format that makes the regular season better. I want more teams to feel like they're chasing that opportunity to compete for a national championship. Teams can get hot late in the season. The fact that they lose a game early shouldn't disqualify them, those types of things. So, to play more meaningful conference games as late as possible. I think you see that in the professional sports model — they try to keep as many teams alive for as long as possible, especially when you get into a world when you condition fans to think about this great new playoff that we've created, they're going to focus on achieving that. The extent that teams don't have the opportunity to get there, it's going to eventually hurt. We want to make sure we have the interest, that teams can break through, have a remarkable season, qualify and play. We just believe strongly that conference record is the backbone of all of that — how you play during the season, qualify off your conference record. That's sort of the best way we believe. So, if I could boil it down, your main objective would be to keep more teams relevant in the season and playing meaningful games later in the year? That's right. … I look at Ohio State last year. Ohio State lost two Big Ten conference games. Technically, they finished fourth in the conference at 7-2, and were clearly, by the end of the playoff run, the best team in the country. I think it's an indication of why it's hard to figure this stuff out during the course of a season. One thing I'll also say that's really important is, within the Big Ten, you have 17 available opponents. You play nine of them. Even within a schedule, there are discrepancies in the strength of schedule. You just don't know who's going to be strong and who's not when you play them, the rub of that luck of the schedule or when you play teams, who is healthy when you play them. The idea we've had about playing play-in games is a way to sort of accommodate the fact that we're not playing that much of a common schedule, even within the league, let alone trying to be compared to the SEC, Big 12 and ACC. The idea of having a championship game with those two teams in, and then playing our sixth-seeded team vs. our third [seed] and our fifth [seed] vs. our fourth [seed], which is the idea we've been talking about. I think it's just a way to also normalize your conference schedule. It really is hard to sometimes tell the difference between our own teams, because a lot of times they don't play each other. I've got four criteria that I think need to be hit for the reformatting of the CFP. I love yours and mine fits in with one of yours. I think we need to increase fan base engagement and increase the valuable or meaningful games that we play — Encourage them. That's right. I think we need to minimize the power of the committee and I think we need to maintain more conferences being relevant. What you have put forth is a 16-team playoff with a 4-4-2-2-1-3 — four automatic bids for the Big Ten, four automatic bids for the SEC, two automatic bids for the ACC, two automatic bids for the Big 12, three at-large bids and one for the Group of 5. Why that model? I understand there was controversy about how many AQs (automatic qualifiers) one league gets or another. Let's put that aside for now. I think we're trying to focus on, at least within the Big Ten, we're not asking to be handed anything. We're playing non-conference games. We want to play tough play-in games to get there, and we want to create an incentive for our schools to schedule more non-conference, because if you're qualifying off your conference record — So, you're trying to build a system that creates tougher games? Yeah, I want to play more. I think, theoretically, the goal is to play more non-conference games, because if you're qualifying for the CFP off your conference record and then a play-in game, the fact that you play a tough SEC or ACC or Big 12 team and maybe get beat on the road, whatever the result is, that might impact your seeding down the road, but it's not going to impact your access. There are three at-larges, so it does a little bit. But at the end of the day, that loss isn't fatal. You can finish 7-2 in the Big Ten, like Ohio State, and if you lost a non-conference game with a 9-3 record, they're in the tournament because a 7-2 record is almost certainly going to get you into a play-in game in the Big Ten. As great as college football is, and it's great, there's just more on the table we can do. I think fans want to see these non-conference games early in the season. I think we can do more of it. Everybody's pointing to that Texas-Ohio State game, which is going to get tremendous attention. We want more of that. We want to incentivize that and not create a sense of, "Does winning that game help you more or does losing that game hurt you more?" That's what coaches and ADs are going to be faced with. I don't understand how you compare 10-win teams in one league to a nine-win team in another; that nine-win team could clearly be better. I just think it's very, very difficult. Mainly, getting back to what I suggested, there isn't much head-to-head, and there really isn't a lot of crossover, at least in our league, because we play non-conference games, we don't play that many games against the SEC. I'd like to actually play more, because I think it's just better for fans. So, I agree with you overall. Now, there are some things that I will maybe disagree with. The baseline should be building a system that goes from a selection-based model to an access-based model. We should be trying to minimize the committee. We should be trying to create a defined path and access to the College Football Playoff, which then would create not only more meaningful games, but more fan bases engaged deep into the season. Now, one of the things that everyone immediately points out is then, well, why do you get four automatic spots and the ACC and the Big 12 only get two? We've made a decision about what we think is appropriate for us and what you should have on the at-large side, and it's based on historic strength and where we think programs are. Are there other ideas that we would consider? I think we've been pretty open, and we just communicated this in a recent meeting we had. We're open to ideas. I just think ultimately, it's going to be very hard to sort of figure out how you expand the field, because the alternative to this system is expanding the field and giving the committee more to do. If you go to 16 and you have 11 at large, you've just added even more decision-making. The answer is, "Well, at that point it gets to be easy, because you'll cover everybody." No, the more spots you put into the system, the more difficult decisions you're facing. Teams start to look more alike. We're looking to kind of do exactly what you said, which is to reduce the role of the committee. Let them focus on seeding and the last three at-large spots. If everybody's playing play-in games, I don't want to speak for the ACC, Big 12 or SEC about how they would qualify in an AQ world, but we've done some modeling that you could have somewhere between 40 and 50 teams after Week 13 that are either in the play-in position or one game back. That's a lot of teams still alive. Some of them might be less realistic chances than others, but they're all sort of playing and you don't want to get into that mode where you lost that third game and you're not [in it]. I worry that, as the CFP gets better and better, missing it and where you go after that gets to be harder. Was there any argument or reason or data point given in the recent meetings that convinced you at all that the 5+11 model (one automatic qualifier from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and Group of 5; 11 at-large bids) might be feasible? We've been a proponent for a certain system for about a year now, and obviously, we want to hear other ideas if they are out there. We'll study everything that's sent our way. If we need independent help to evaluate it, we'll go get it. I just haven't seen anything yet, and then communicating back. And it's not me. It's not my voice. It's the voice of the Big Ten. It's 18 athletic directors and coaches who have to be convinced that this is fair to expand. That's where we are. Is there something that shows that the metrics can be applied? We haven't heard anything yet. It doesn't mean that someone won't suggest something. We think bigger is better. I think 12 is not enough teams given the size of the teams that are competing. You look at professional leagues, they go somewhere between 40% and 50% of their teams qualifying for the postseason. We're way below that, even at 16. I think we want to be really careful. We want to be open-minded. I think we come in — skeptical might be the word. Like, how are you going to make something back? When I talk to Warde Manuel, the AD at Michigan who was the chair of the committee, when I talked with him about, "Hey, did you feel like you didn't have enough?" That's not what I get back. I don't get back from him, "Hey, if only we had more data, we could do this even better." It's not that. It's like, "We have a lot already." At the end of the day, you're making comparisons, you're bunching teams together, and you're making a decision collectively with a bunch of other people who were working really hard. That's different than winning a game 31-27 on the field. If I were in the room, I would say 14 is better than 16 because 16 is redundant. It's a safety that's unnecessary because you'd have that play-in weekend. Is it redundant to have the three at-large spots? I think it does a couple of things. One, it does protect a third-place team in the Big Ten who lost one game and gets caught at home in a close game and loses to have one more opportunity to get in. You're right. You want to call that redundant, it's definitely a safety net to get one more chance at it. But I think it does something else that you talked about before. It increases the chance of others from outside the A4 (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC) to get in, if you have more at-larges. I think the 16[-team model] that we've heard about is playing some games early, like a 16-13, 15-14 weekend, and then preserving the bye. One of the things that I really liked about 14 is rewarding two teams with byes. If you can find a format with 16 that still does that — this way, when we're all playing these conference championship games, if that's what we end up doing, there's really a lot at stake there. I think having the catch-all may be a safety net everybody wants. I get back to the total number 16. I was originally like you. I was really more focused on 14. But then when talking to the guys about the opportunity to come, it does provide some opportunities outside of the A4 to have a couple more bites at the apple. You said you'd be open to adjusting your 16-team model. One of the ideas is a 4-4-2.5-2.5-1-2 model, where there are basically five spots allotted between the ACC and Big 12. I've spoken with those commissioners, specifically Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, and he said it's just a tough pill to swallow, to say, "Hey, you're going to get half the spots that we get." Would you be open to a 2.5 model? I've read about it, but I want to be fair and be open-minded and not kind of preordain anything because it hasn't been presented. I haven't seen any real substantive conversation about that model. So I don't really know. The right way to do this is to make sure that you know every league is there. There are still three at-large [bids in the 4-4-2-2-1-3 model]. There's an opportunity to get more than two, and there's an opportunity for us to get more than four potentially. That's another reason when you ask me, "Why 16?" It does help with that initial thing. Depending on where you sit, there are many people who will hate this. We've seen it and I understand why. It's the idea we're starting from something different. I do push back when people say you aren't earning your spots. I think we're earning our spots, playing nine tough games and going through a really tough play-in. I think that's earning your spot. I love Notre Dame and Notre Dame is great for the sport. Yet, there are always these carve-outs for them and specifically for the playoff as it expands. What do we do with Notre Dame? We've all agreed that they should have their path to access. I don't think anybody's suggesting that we change that for them. That's not something that they'd be obligated to do. No matter what the format change is, the Big Ten and SEC have to come together and make a suggestion, and then the others weigh in. We take that feedback, decide what we want to incorporate. But there are certain parameters that are guaranteed, like, we can't come up with a format that says the conference champions aren't in. That's not what we agreed to. Even with the discretion that we have together with the SEC, there are parameters that we agree to on certain things. And part of that is Notre Dame's access, and I'm fine with that. Do you see yourself or any of the institutions you represent agreeing to a 5+11 model at any point? It's way too early because we haven't even seen a proposal of what it would be. We haven't seen some key things: How many conference games is everybody playing? We haven't seen what the criteria [is for] the committee. If you're going to increase the role of a selection committee, I don't think anybody in the group — whether it's the ACC, Big 12, SEC or us, believes that you can keep it the same and that you would be OK with that. So I think we've got to do work there. What was your sentiment, and the Big Ten's sentiment overall, about home games in the playoff? Would you like to see more in the future? I was fortunate to be at Penn State when they played SMU, and then go that night to Columbus to watch Ohio State play Tennessee. The environments were great. Home games are great. The Tennessee fans traveled. That was some environment. There were a lot of folks on both sides there, and I think that riled up the Ohio State fans that were there. This is an area where there are a lot of things to balance. There's the great tradition of the bowl games and staying connected to the bowl games, which is really important. There are also coaches who say, "Wait, I didn't get a chance to host a game. I was seeded high, but I didn't get that chance." I think one of the things that'll hopefully correct a little bit of the problems last year is going to the straight seeding. I think that was a really needed change. I think it makes it tough when you're moving teams up and down a lot of lines based on parameters instead of the real assessment. So that'll help, but I think more to come and see how this evolves. But if you do go to 16 [teams], you are playing more campus games because you'll have more first-round games. So you may not have later-round games, but you'll have more first-round games [on campus]. Joel Klatt is FOX Sports' lead college football game analyst and the host of the podcast " The Joel Klatt Show. " Follow him at @joelklatt and subscribe to the "Joel Klatt Show" on YouTube . Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily. recommended Get more from College Football Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
Fox News
16-06-2025
- Sport
- Fox News
Marcus Freeman hopes to continue traditions, including USC rivalry, independence
Print Close Published June 16, 2025 I've been among the many who've been impressed with what Marcus Freeman has built in South Bend through his first three seasons as Notre Dame's head coach. In fact, I was so impressed with how he coached this season that I said following Notre Dame's national title game loss to Ohio State that I think he could win a championship soon if he opts to stay in South Bend. So, we decided to bring "Big Noon Conversations" to South Bend and interview Freeman for the premiere of the show's third season. As Freeman prepares for his fourth season as the head coach of the Fighting Irish, he and I touched on numerous items throughout our 30-minute conversation. We discussed Notre Dame's independent status, the future of its rivalry with USC, learning from his early losses as head coach and carrying on the program's tradition. Here are some of the highlights of my conversation with Freeman. Parts of this interview were edited for brevity. Klatt: I've gotta tell you, and I didn't want to tell you before you sat down, because I didn't want to steal this line and I hate to break it to all of you out there. This is my singular favorite spot in college football, the locker room at Notre Dame Stadium. Freeman: I appreciate that. We've gotta make sure we get that message out there a little bit more. It's incredible, and they did a little bit of this before you became the head coach, but mixing the old with the new, going out the door and down the tunnel and all the history. Yet, it's a modern program that's excelling. I feel all of that when I walk into this building and it's just quintessentially college football, which is really cool. That's what we want it to be. You can't get away from the things that have made this place special. You embrace it. You celebrate it. You show it off. But you also want to continue to be relevant. You want to continue to be new, trendy and attract young talent. Notre Dame does a magnificent job of doing that. You say "attract young talent." What I'm fascinated by is that when I walk in, the history hits me and I love it. But when you get a young kid out here, how long does it take for them to grasp what this place is? It depends on who it is. Sometimes, their parents understand it, which can resonate with the young person. But a lot of these young people now, they have no clue about the old Notre Dame - the history and how this program was built. The success it's had and its 11 national championships. We haven't won a championship since [1988]. How do you continue to make this relevant? It's important that we explain to the young person what makes this place special. Do that for me. Let's say I'm a dad and I have a kid, or I'm a kid that you're recruiting. How do you explain the special, unique nature of this place? I think it goes so far beyond the football program. We spend time talking about the history of Notre Dame football, how it was built and the reason why we're independent. We were looking for teams to play and we were willing to drive or go on a train from coast to coast, from Navy or Boston College all the way out to Southern Cal, in order to find an opponent. That's how the Notre Dame football program was built, in independence. That's why we want to keep that independence as much as we can. That's what makes this place so special. But I often talk about the education, networking and people that are intertwined with Notre Dame because that's, to me, what makes this place so different. Everybody that comes to our program aspires to be a first-round pick. If you're good enough, you will be a first-round pick. We've got plenty of them to show you. But what else do universities provide you? And that's what we've got to make sure we continuously educate young people on. No. 1, the percentage of people that are those first-round picks or are those draft picks, but also the realization that football is going to end. It's going to end before you know it. So, what else do these high educational institutions provide you? That's what we want people to understand, what makes this place different. They like to talk in terms of stars. This is a five-star football program; we get that. But there's also a five-star education, and here are the benefits of obtaining an education from this university. You touched on independence, which was something I wanted to touch on with you. You kinda referenced it there, but how important is it for you guys to retain your independence? It's what this football program was built from. As long as we can, we will [remain independent]. I have a lot of confidence in our administration and Pete Bevacqu, our AD, that he'll always keep us in a position to be successful. So, as long as we can keep that independence, we will. But if there's ever a time where we're at a disadvantage because we're not in a conference, I'm sure he'll make a decision, along with our president, to join one of these conferences and position ourselves to not be negatively impacted by being independent. What is the biggest threat to that? Where does a disadvantage pop up? Being at a disadvantage to make the postseason because you're not in the playoff or if there comes a time teams won't schedule you because the Big Ten or SEC are saying "we're going to play nine games and a crossover game and who cares about Notre Dame." Well, then there's going to be a point where we're forced to join a conference. Until that point happens, which doesn't look likely, we're going to stay independent for as long as we can. Do you feel like independence fits with the future of the sport because of what you said there with crossover games and scheduling? I could see it trending that way. I don't know when that time will be. But when you start adding in TV money and scheduling, there's a lot of money involved with college football. There might come a time where an outside entity takes college football away from the NCAA. I don't know, the future's uncertain. I could see a college football system where everyone's independent and, similar to the NFL, someone else is scheduling games and when you play each other. All of a sudden, it's not based off TV deals with your conference anymore. It'll be based off regional location and things like that. You guys recently made the scheduling agreement with Clemson, which I think is great. We'd love to see more games like that involving premium brands. Are there any other teams that you'd like to play every year? I feel like you're trying to get a certain team that's been buzzing (laughs). You think about rivalries, and I'm sure you can go back to when you played high school football or even earlier. I think back to my high school years. I was from Ohio and played at a high school called Huber Heights Wayne. Our big rival was Centerville Elks. The guys that have come from Centerville that you might know are AJ Hawk, Kirk Herbstreit, Mike Nugent and some really great players. That was a huge rivalry. Then, you go to Ohio State and you play Michigan every year. The thing about rivalry games is that nobody cares what the record is. You win that game, you view that season as a success. Michigan last year with Ohio State. Amen. So, for us, one of them that's continuously brought up here over the last month or so is the rivalry with USC. Before I even got to Notre Dame, there are memories I have in my head of great plays in the USC-Notre Dame rivalry. I think it's important to continue that rivalry. If they ask my opinion, I want to continuously play USC every year. It takes both parties to tangle. It's to fit both institutions. They're in a conference, we're not, when we play - all of those different things. But I think it's important that we continue to have this rivalry. You guys just made an incredible run in the College Football Playoff. You played for a national championship. What do you know now about the head coach of Notre Dame that you wish you could tell that guy after the loss to Marshall in your first year in 2022? Probably one very clear statement: The greatest things in life take time and there is no such thing as instant gratification if you're talking about creating something great. You learn so much more from the losses. You can't lose or you're not going to have a job. But losing is a part of continuous growth. Nobody enjoys it, but there's a desperation that every individual naturally has when they're in the dumps, when they've lost and feel embarrassed. I think I've had my most growth as a leader from some of those difficult losses. But if you would've told me when I was hired as the head coach here that I would play in a national championship game in Year 3, I would've been like, "Heck ya, that's an awesome start." But if you also would've said that you had nine losses on your record before you did that, oof, that's hard to swallow. But that's what it took. That's the experience that I've had to go through, and we've had to go through as a program to put ourselves in the position we're in now. We've got to continue to use those experiences from the past as a new foundation for the future. Is there a moment or game that stands out where you feel you learned the most? I think each loss might have taught me something different. The very first loss to Oklahoma State, we're up big. We're up 21 getting ready to go into half, they end up scoring and we're up 14 at half. I'm like, "Man, this is easy, the head coaching thing." Then, all of a sudden, you find a way to lose that game and you go, "Oh, this is not as easy as you thought." We play at Ohio State in the first game in the following year. We're up, I think, in the third quarter, 10-7 maybe. We're up in the third quarter and I'm like, "We're good." We ended up losing, [but I thought] we're going to be great. Then, you lose to Marshall. And I think, that loss, I had never won a game as a head coach, and you start losing a little bit of faith, like "Do I know what it takes? What's going on? We're a better team than how we just played. What is it going to take?" So, you learn through those losses. Then, you lose to Northern Illinois this past year. The lesson I learned from that was how to handle success. We weren't ready. I wasn't ready to handle success as a head coach. That was the first time in my three years as head coach that we had won that big game early. … This is the first time that we had won that big game. Everyone's saying you've got an easy schedule, you're going to the playoff. Then, you don't prepare mentally and physically the right way. The football Gods taught us a great lesson. I think every loss, you learn something different. You came up short against Ohio State in the National Championship Game. What did you learn in that game? In those biggest games and those biggest moments, you've gotta play your best. You can't make mistakes against a team like Ohio State. You think about that first drive on offense, I think it was a 19-play drive. We execute, we're physical, and we go down and score. Defensively, we didn't play our best. Credit to Ohio State. They had some elite playmakers. They played really, really well. I wish we could go back and play our best. The outcomes might still be the same, but there were moments in that game where I thought that's not how we play all year long. But listen, we fought until the very end. We were down 14 at half, 21 [later on] and it was an eight-point game. This group isn't going to quit. Ever. As I think about it, it's like, OK, what didn't I do to prepare them the right way for that opportunity? What didn't I do as the head coach to make sure we were ready to play our best in that moment? Was the game too big? Did I make it too small? I think of many different reasons. I want everyone in our program to think that way, "What didn't I do to make sure I was prepared to take advantage of that opportunity?" It's really hard to get there. So, it's something I'll always remember. We made some changes. We already debriefed from that game. If we're in that situation, here are some different things as we prepare for it. At the end of the day, you've got to play your best when you're playing the best. You got some interest from the NFL from that run. Instead of asking you specifically about that, here's how I would rather ask you this question: What are the one or two things we need to fix in college football to make sure the Marcus Freemans of the world stay? I always think about our staff and how I, as the head coach, do the best job possible to make sure our staff enjoys coming to work here. Part of that is trying not to overwork them. Sometimes, college coaches can overwork their staffs. We're going to work hard. I'm not saying it's going to be easy. Nothing great in life is easy. But how do we continue to look at the calendar and make it in a way that there's some time of balance for the assistant coaches? They're the ones that are on the road 24/7 constantly. We've got to create some type of balance for those coaches and I think we are. I see us trending, from my first year to now my fourth year, in a direction that's trying to create some type of balance for assistant coaches and that's important. But how do we continue to have a college football structure that helps young people continually become self-sufficient? I think back to my time at Ohio State. I was a pretty big recruit. There was a thought in my head, "I'm going to walk in here and start." Well, you've got three linebackers, two of them were first-round picks - AJ Hawk and Bobby Carpenter - and the other was a third-round pick, Anthony Schlegel. I wasn't good enough to start. I had to learn for two years to embrace my role and continue to work, even though I wasn't playing as much as I wanted. How do I, as an individual, take advantage of my opportunities and get better? That's how you become self-sufficient. You overcome challenges. There was no thought for me to get up and go somewhere else. That's the greatest thing I had to learn to do. Stay there, overcome some adversity, take advantage of the opportunities that I got, graduate and get a degree. I just don't want a structure that's created where when things get hard, it's easy to pick up and go somewhere else. I think it's important that we create rules and some type of structure that continues to promote self-sufficiency for young people and overcoming obstacles. When I first came to Notre Dame, I was like, "I don't want to like Notre Dame." But when we got here a couple of years ago to prepare to call Notre Dame's game against Wisconsin, you were the defensive coordinator at the time, we did some interviews and I'm walking around, "It's not that cool." Then, we go to the Grotto, the Basilica, we walk in this locker room and I walk out on the field. I was like, "Dang it, this place is so awesome." I still feel that way. It's a really special place. It is. It's an honor to be a part of this place. You've got to be cautious about how much you brag about it because somebody that hasn't been here to understand might be taken aback because the way people have so much passion about this place. I think back to before I became the defensive coordinator here. I used to be like, "Notre Dame fans are over the top. These guys are crazy." Then, you get here, and it's such a passion for this place and university. Joel Klatt is FOX Sports' lead college football game analyst and the host of the podcast " The Joel Klatt Show. " Follow him at @joelklatt and subscribe to the "Joel Klatt Show" on YouTube . Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily. Print Close URL
Fox Sports
16-06-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Marcus Freeman hopes to continue traditions, including USC rivalry, independence
I've been among the many who've been impressed with what Marcus Freeman has built in South Bend through his first three seasons as Notre Dame's head coach. In fact, I was so impressed with how he coached this season that I said following Notre Dame's national title game loss to Ohio State that I think he could win a championship soon if he opts to stay in South Bend. So, we decided to bring "Big Noon Conversations" to South Bend and interview Freeman for the premiere of the show's third season. As Freeman prepares for his fourth season as the head coach of the Fighting Irish, he and I touched on numerous items throughout our 30-minute conversation. We discussed Notre Dame's independent status, the future of its rivalry with USC, learning from his early losses as head coach and carrying on the program's tradition. Here are some of the highlights of my conversation with Freeman. Parts of this interview were edited for brevity. Klatt: I've gotta tell you, and I didn't want to tell you before you sat down, because I didn't want to steal this line and I hate to break it to all of you out there. This is my singular favorite spot in college football, the locker room at Notre Dame Stadium. Freeman: I appreciate that. We've gotta make sure we get that message out there a little bit more. It's incredible, and they did a little bit of this before you became the head coach, but mixing the old with the new, going out the door and down the tunnel and all the history. Yet, it's a modern program that's excelling. I feel all of that when I walk into this building and it's just quintessentially college football, which is really cool. That's what we want it to be. You can't get away from the things that have made this place special. You embrace it. You celebrate it. You show it off. But you also want to continue to be relevant. You want to continue to be new, trendy and attract young talent. Notre Dame does a magnificent job of doing that. You say "attract young talent." What I'm fascinated by is that when I walk in, the history hits me and I love it. But when you get a young kid out here, how long does it take for them to grasp what this place is? It depends on who it is. Sometimes, their parents understand it, which can resonate with the young person. But a lot of these young people now, they have no clue about the old Notre Dame - the history and how this program was built. The success it's had and its 11 national championships. We haven't won a championship since [1988]. How do you continue to make this relevant? It's important that we explain to the young person what makes this place special. Do that for me. Let's say I'm a dad and I have a kid, or I'm a kid that you're recruiting. How do you explain the special, unique nature of this place? I think it goes so far beyond the football program. We spend time talking about the history of Notre Dame football, how it was built and the reason why we're independent. We were looking for teams to play and we were willing to drive or go on a train from coast to coast, from Navy or Boston College all the way out to Southern Cal, in order to find an opponent. That's how the Notre Dame football program was built, in independence. That's why we want to keep that independence as much as we can. That's what makes this place so special. But I often talk about the education, networking and people that are intertwined with Notre Dame because that's, to me, what makes this place so different. Everybody that comes to our program aspires to be a first-round pick. If you're good enough, you will be a first-round pick. We've got plenty of them to show you. But what else do universities provide you? And that's what we've got to make sure we continuously educate young people on. No. 1, the percentage of people that are those first-round picks or are those draft picks, but also the realization that football is going to end. It's going to end before you know it. So, what else do these high educational institutions provide you? That's what we want people to understand, what makes this place different. They like to talk in terms of stars. This is a five-star football program; we get that. But there's also a five-star education, and here are the benefits of obtaining an education from this university. You touched on independence, which was something I wanted to touch on with you. You kinda referenced it there, but how important is it for you guys to retain your independence? It's what this football program was built from. As long as we can, we will [remain independent]. I have a lot of confidence in our administration and Pete Bevacqu, our AD, that he'll always keep us in a position to be successful. So, as long as we can keep that independence, we will. But if there's ever a time where we're at a disadvantage because we're not in a conference, I'm sure he'll make a decision, along with our president, to join one of these conferences and position ourselves to not be negatively impacted by being independent. What is the biggest threat to that? Where does a disadvantage pop up? Being at a disadvantage to make the postseason because you're not in the playoff or if there comes a time teams won't schedule you because the Big Ten or SEC are saying "we're going to play nine games and a crossover game and who cares about Notre Dame." Well, then there's going to be a point where we're forced to join a conference. Until that point happens, which doesn't look likely, we're going to stay independent for as long as we can. Do you feel like independence fits with the future of the sport because of what you said there with crossover games and scheduling? I could see it trending that way. I don't know when that time will be. But when you start adding in TV money and scheduling, there's a lot of money involved with college football. There might come a time where an outside entity takes college football away from the NCAA. I don't know, the future's uncertain. I could see a college football system where everyone's independent and, similar to the NFL, someone else is scheduling games and when you play each other. All of a sudden, it's not based off TV deals with your conference anymore. It'll be based off regional location and things like that. You guys recently made the scheduling agreement with Clemson, which I think is great. We'd love to see more games like that involving premium brands. Are there any other teams that you'd like to play every year? I feel like you're trying to get a certain team that's been buzzing (laughs). You think about rivalries, and I'm sure you can go back to when you played high school football or even earlier. I think back to my high school years. I was from Ohio and played at a high school called Huber Heights Wayne. Our big rival was Centerville Elks. The guys that have come from Centerville that you might know are AJ Hawk, Kirk Herbstreit, Mike Nugent and some really great players. That was a huge rivalry. Then, you go to Ohio State and you play Michigan every year. The thing about rivalry games is that nobody cares what the record is. You win that game, you view that season as a success. Michigan last year with Ohio State. Amen. So, for us, one of them that's continuously brought up here over the last month or so is the rivalry with USC. Before I even got to Notre Dame, there are memories I have in my head of great plays in the USC-Notre Dame rivalry. I think it's important to continue that rivalry. If they ask my opinion, I want to continuously play USC every year. It takes both parties to tangle. It's to fit both institutions. They're in a conference, we're not, when we play - all of those different things. But I think it's important that we continue to have this rivalry. You guys just made an incredible run in the College Football Playoff. You played for a national championship. What do you know now about the head coach of Notre Dame that you wish you could tell that guy after the loss to Marshall in your first year in 2022? Probably one very clear statement: The greatest things in life take time and there is no such thing as instant gratification if you're talking about creating something great. You learn so much more from the losses. You can't lose or you're not going to have a job. But losing is a part of continuous growth. Nobody enjoys it, but there's a desperation that every individual naturally has when they're in the dumps, when they've lost and feel embarrassed. I think I've had my most growth as a leader from some of those difficult losses. But if you would've told me when I was hired as the head coach here that I would play in a national championship game in Year 3, I would've been like, "Heck ya, that's an awesome start." But if you also would've said that you had nine losses on your record before you did that, oof, that's hard to swallow. But that's what it took. That's the experience that I've had to go through, and we've had to go through as a program to put ourselves in the position we're in now. We've got to continue to use those experiences from the past as a new foundation for the future. Is there a moment or game that stands out where you feel you learned the most? I think each loss might have taught me something different. The very first loss to Oklahoma State, we're up big. We're up 21 getting ready to go into half, they end up scoring and we're up 14 at half. I'm like, "Man, this is easy, the head coaching thing." Then, all of a sudden, you find a way to lose that game and you go, "Oh, this is not as easy as you thought." We play at Ohio State in the first game in the following year. We're up, I think, in the third quarter, 10-7 maybe. We're up in the third quarter and I'm like, "We're good." We ended up losing, [but I thought] we're going to be great. Then, you lose to Marshall. And I think, that loss, I had never won a game as a head coach, and you start losing a little bit of faith, like "Do I know what it takes? What's going on? We're a better team than how we just played. What is it going to take?" So, you learn through those losses. Then, you lose to Northern Illinois this past year. The lesson I learned from that was how to handle success. We weren't ready. I wasn't ready to handle success as a head coach. That was the first time in my three years as head coach that we had won that big game early. … This is the first time that we had won that big game. Everyone's saying you've got an easy schedule, you're going to the playoff. Then, you don't prepare mentally and physically the right way. The football Gods taught us a great lesson. I think every loss, you learn something different. You came up short against Ohio State in the National Championship Game. What did you learn in that game? In those biggest games and those biggest moments, you've gotta play your best. You can't make mistakes against a team like Ohio State. You think about that first drive on offense, I think it was a 19-play drive. We execute, we're physical, and we go down and score. Defensively, we didn't play our best. Credit to Ohio State. They had some elite playmakers. They played really, really well. I wish we could go back and play our best. The outcomes might still be the same, but there were moments in that game where I thought that's not how we play all year long. But listen, we fought until the very end. We were down 14 at half, 21 [later on] and it was an eight-point game. This group isn't going to quit. Ever. As I think about it, it's like, OK, what didn't I do to prepare them the right way for that opportunity? What didn't I do as the head coach to make sure we were ready to play our best in that moment? Was the game too big? Did I make it too small? I think of many different reasons. I want everyone in our program to think that way, "What didn't I do to make sure I was prepared to take advantage of that opportunity?" It's really hard to get there. So, it's something I'll always remember. We made some changes. We already debriefed from that game. If we're in that situation, here are some different things as we prepare for it. At the end of the day, you've got to play your best when you're playing the best. You got some interest from the NFL from that run. Instead of asking you specifically about that, here's how I would rather ask you this question: What are the one or two things we need to fix in college football to make sure the Marcus Freemans of the world stay? I always think about our staff and how I, as the head coach, do the best job possible to make sure our staff enjoys coming to work here. Part of that is trying not to overwork them. Sometimes, college coaches can overwork their staffs. We're going to work hard. I'm not saying it's going to be easy. Nothing great in life is easy. But how do we continue to look at the calendar and make it in a way that there's some time of balance for the assistant coaches? They're the ones that are on the road 24/7 constantly. We've got to create some type of balance for those coaches and I think we are. I see us trending, from my first year to now my fourth year, in a direction that's trying to create some type of balance for assistant coaches and that's important. But how do we continue to have a college football structure that helps young people continually become self-sufficient? I think back to my time at Ohio State. I was a pretty big recruit. There was a thought in my head, "I'm going to walk in here and start." Well, you've got three linebackers, two of them were first-round picks - AJ Hawk and Bobby Carpenter - and the other was a third-round pick, Anthony Schlegel. I wasn't good enough to start. I had to learn for two years to embrace my role and continue to work, even though I wasn't playing as much as I wanted. How do I, as an individual, take advantage of my opportunities and get better? That's how you become self-sufficient. You overcome challenges. There was no thought for me to get up and go somewhere else. That's the greatest thing I had to learn to do. Stay there, overcome some adversity, take advantage of the opportunities that I got, graduate and get a degree. I just don't want a structure that's created where when things get hard, it's easy to pick up and go somewhere else. I think it's important that we create rules and some type of structure that continues to promote self-sufficiency for young people and overcoming obstacles. When I first came to Notre Dame, I was like, "I don't want to like Notre Dame." But when we got here a couple of years ago to prepare to call Notre Dame's game against Wisconsin, you were the defensive coordinator at the time, we did some interviews and I'm walking around, "It's not that cool." Then, we go to the Grotto, the Basilica, we walk in this locker room and I walk out on the field. I was like, "Dang it, this place is so awesome." I still feel that way. It's a really special place. It is. It's an honor to be a part of this place. You've got to be cautious about how much you brag about it because somebody that hasn't been here to understand might be taken aback because the way people have so much passion about this place. I think back to before I became the defensive coordinator here. I used to be like, "Notre Dame fans are over the top. These guys are crazy." Then, you get here, and it's such a passion for this place and university. Joel Klatt is FOX Sports' lead college football game analyst and the host of the podcast " The Joel Klatt Show. " Follow him at @joelklatt and subscribe to the "Joel Klatt Show" on YouTube . Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily. recommended Get more from College Football Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
USA Today
16-06-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Marcus Freeman speaks about Notre Dame with Joel Klatt
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman visits with Joel Klatt. Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman will be the first guest on Joel Klatt's Big Noon Conversations show as it returns ahead of the 2025 season. The Fox show is available now on platforms such as YouTube and Spotify. Among the topics covered are Notre Dame's independence, the rivalry with USC and last year's march to the national championship game. We'll have another post today with thoughts and takeaways from what Freeman had to say. Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (Formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions. Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle Follow Tim on X: @tehealey
