Notre Dame has been a staple college football program since before the days of Knute Rockne, and in 10 days, they’ll be playing for the program’s 12th national championship—and its first since 1988.
With a 41-yard field goal from Mitch Jeter in the waning seconds of a 27-24 win over Penn State, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish claimed one of two spots in the 2025 National Championship Game.
Many distinguishing features make Notre Dame football a one-of-a-kind football program—their golden helmet, dancing Leprechaun, and iconic Touchdown Jesus mural outside of their home stadium to name a few.
However, the thing that separates them from the rest of college football is the fact that the program has managed to maintain its status as an independent (sans the 2020 season for COVID-19 Pandemic) since its inaugural season in 1887.
Even in the age of television contracts, Notre Dame has stood on its own thanks to a long-standing, lucrative TV deal with NBC. Their independent status allows the Irish to have greater control over their brand and their schedule, making it a no-brainer for the university.
And, thanks to their independence, the Irish will get a hefty bonus for making the national championship game.
Thanks to the College Football Playoff contractual agreement, each team that makes the CFP National Championship will be guaranteed to take home $20 million to share with the conference, and since Notre Dame doesn’t belong to a conference… Yep.
Now that Notre Dame is in the national championship game, they are guaranteed to take home $20 million from this year’s College Football Playoff,” Joe Pompliano, the founder of Huddle Up, writes on Twitter. “And since they are an independent football program, they get to keep every single dollar of that for themselves. Crazy.”
It really does pay to be a Golden Domer.
