ATHENS, GEORGIA - SEPTEMBER 21: Cole Kmet #84 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish celebrates his second quarter touchdown with teammates while playing the Georgia Bulldogs at Sanford Stadium on September 21, 2019 in Athens, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

From a money standpoint, it pays for Notre Dame football to be Independent.

Staying independent has been a major fight between the Notre Dame football faithful and the rest of the country. The rest of the college football community will yell and stomp their feet over Notre Dame avoiding a conference championship every year. While it can hurt in the eyes of the playoff committee, the pay day they don’t have to share has to be a major perk.

Notre Dame can get two $6 million paychecks this year just by making the College Football Playoff. Because of their independence, that money all goes to the Irish.

For everyone that complains, Ohio State and Alabama made the playoff without a conference championship.

Nobody likes to talk about the schedule Notre Dame plays every year. 2018 was a season that had Notre Dame beat Pitt and Northwestern. Both represented their division in the conference championship. They also played on both coasts — and as the 2019 season shows — they will play anyone.

Not to many people are willing to travel to Georgia and play a top five team in a true road game. Just to drive the point home, Notre Dame has future games scheduled against Clemson, Wisconsin, Alabama and Texas A&M. These games will be worked in with their yearly rivals and a host of ACC opponents. Notre Dame is playing anyone and meeting them anywhere.

So why would Notre Dame football move into a conference? Despite the ACC agreement that I would rather see disappear, Notre Dame has the ability to play anyone and keep all of their financial gain.

Walking away from the financial gain and scheduling freedom would be idiotic.

Unless Notre Dame starts scheduling FCS teams and refusing to play true away games, similar to what Alabama does, than there is no reason to join a conference. Notre Dame gets everyone’s best shot week in and week out. The SEC has Arkansas losing to San Jose State and the ACC has 7-6 Pitt in their conference championship.

All of the talk about Notre Dame needing to join a conference has just been one of the trends during the College Football Playoff era.

Let the rest of the country complain while Notre Dame can continue to reap the benefits of independence.