Marcus Freeman answered the question that many fans want to know the answer to on SiriusXM with Mike Krzyzewski Wednesday.

Notre Dame is a major brand in college football, but has yet to join a conference. The closest the program got to doing so in football was during 2020 when it joined the ACC for one season.

Freeman insisted that as long as there’s a clear path for the Fighting Irish to the College Football Playoff and the school doesn’t fall behind on media deals and TV contracts Notre Dame will stay independent.

“We’ve always said that as long as we have a clear path to making the playoff and we don’t fall behind in terms of media deals and our TV contracts that Notre Dame will continuously try to stay Independent,” said Freeman. “We sell that. We are one of the only schools that has its own exclusive NBC contract. Notre Dame football was built on being independent.”

The Fighting Irish are currently an FBS Independent. Other schools who do so include Army, UMass, and UConn.

Freeman further noted that Notre Dame’s foundation was built on traveling around the country to find games in the past.

“Notre Dame football was built on being independent. We’re talking about in the early 1900s where Notre Dame was looking for games. Notre Dame traveled to Army, USC, and all over the country to find games,” said Freeman. “That’s why we continue to embrace it, because our foundation was built on being independent.”

It sounds like Notre Dame has no plans of moving to a conference any time soon, especially with the 12-team playoff format fixing to come out next season.