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Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua defended the Fighting Irish's status as an independent on Friday.
"No secret, the expansion of the CFP from four to 12 teams has helped enormously, because as an independent, as with other schools, we get better opportunities, better percentages of getting in the playoffs, and the more you knock on that national championship door, the better," Bevacqua said, per ESPN's Heather Dinich. "And we like the freedom, quite frankly, it gives us."
"The fact we were able to play Navy at MetLife and had the Shamrock Series against Army at Yankee Stadium, that we can continue that great rivalry with USC -- we really get to move around the map and keep that very national presence," he added.