The last time we checked in the conference formerly known as the Pacific-12, it was September, and the team had secured seven schools for the 2026-2027 academic year—needing one more school to get recognition from the NCAA. Well, the Pac-X is looking, still, for that eighth team, and in light of the College Football Playoff seedings that were announced (that we mostly agreed with), we have the solution. Drumroll!

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Seriously.

Before you laugh too hard, consider the hard reality that Notre Dame secured just the seventh seed in the 12-team tournament despite going 11-1 this year as an independent. The way the CFP is set up bow, the Irish will never be able to get a top-4 seed in this iteration of the tournament; those are reserved for conference champions, and Notre Dame doesn’t belong to a conference, formally and/or officially. See how this works?

The Irish are ranked No. 3 in the Associated Press poll, which is meaningless although most low-IQ sports fans do not realize that. In addition, Notre Dame is ranked No. 2 in the Football Power Index, however, and the Irish are No. 4 in the Strength of Record sabermetric rankings. There is a huge argument to be made that the team deserves to be seeded much higher in the CFP Tournament, and the seedings are huge.

First off, the top four schools get a bye in the first round, which is an extra week of rest and preparation. In addition, they also get a favorable matchup in the quarterfinals, which can serve as an express pass of sorts to the semifinals. Considering Notre Dame has not won a consensus national championship since 1988, you’d thinking winning it all would be a priority for the school and its alums/fans. The Pac-X is the way!

Joining the conference would give the Irish access to those top-four seeds it does not have now—more so than joining the ACC or the B1G would do, where Notre Dame would have it much tougher securing a conference championship. In the Pac-X, the Irish would be a very big fish in a relatively middling pond, as the league is constituted right now. Notre Dame would have an annual opportunity to be in the top four.

One of the reasons the Irish have never joined a football conference comes down to TV money: Notre Dame has a lucrative contract all to itself with NBC and has had that for decades. However, and this brings us to a second reason this all makes sense, the Irish would not lose any money by joining the Pac-X. In fact, the school could negotiate whatever it wants with the conference while never losing a dime of revenue at all.

It really is the smart move for Notre Dame if it wants to be a legit contender for the CFP championship every season: access to the higher seeds while maintaining (if not increasing) its TV revenue. It’s a win-win situation, too, for the other Pac-X teams to have such a marquee program in the conference, which it is lacking right now. The Irish could join the league for all sports, abandon its loose ACC/B1G affiliations …

Yeah. This is our idea, which may seem crazy, but it makes sense for everyone involved. Forget the travel money, too, which didn’t stop any realignment in the last few years. This is the smart move for Notre Dame football—which even we haven’t given the MNC to since 1993—and it is a necessary move for the Pac-X to secure an incredible TV contract, even if the funds get distributed unevenly through the membership.

It’s the only way forward now for all parties above, in truth. We hope to see it happen soon … honestly.