Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick in no rush to mull adding 13th game for Irish

IRVING, Texas -- Sorry, Notre Dame fans.

Athletic director Jack Swarbrick said Tuesday he's in no rush to even consider a 13th game for the Irish, in spite of the emphasis placed on conference championship games following the first College Football Playoff.

"You wouldn't believe the number of letters I get from fans with proposals on how to get a 13th game," Swarbrick said on Tuesday at the College Football Playoff spring meetings. "It's just crazy. All of them have one common feature about them: There's not a chance in hell the other school or conference would be willing to do it. Honest to goodness, I get the most creative letters on this topic; it's crazy."

It's not so crazy for Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, who came to the playoff's spring meetings in search of clarity about how important a league title game is after co-champs TCU and Baylor were snubbed. The selection committee made it clear that Ohio State's performance against Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship was the final push the Buckeyes needed to get into the top four. Another opportunity against a ranked opponent was exactly what Ohio State needed, but there could also be years when a conference championship game knocks a team in contention out of the conversation.

Bowlsby is trying to figure out if the risk is one his conference needs to take in the playoff era.

"In the end, I think our regular season is better than anybody else's regular season," he said. "How does that weigh in the equation? We play everybody and nobody else does. Is ours a better way of determining a champion or is theirs? Well, I don't think you can do better than a round-robin. Whether we should have a title game or not? I've advocated before that we should deregulate that rule and conferences should be able to decide how they do that I think that will happen. If anything this probably hastens that, the fact that we got left out and that there is some talk about it."

Swarbrick said that until Notre Dame is in the playoff conversation, he can't evaluate it.

"I'd like to be in the position to have to worry about that," he quipped.

"It's not that there's a 13th game," he said. "It's always going to be against a really good opponent. It's the conference championship game. It's not the aggregate number, it's who you're playing. There are going to be years where a team looks like they're going to get in and gets upset in their conference championship game and they don't get in. Did the 13th game help them? No. I'm not saying that's a reason to do it or not do it, I'm just saying one year's worth of experience with this system is way too small to draw any conclusions about how it will play out over time."

Swarbrick and the 10 FBS commissioners who comprise the playoff's management committee met on Tuesday with bowl representatives, TV executives and the athletic advisory committee, but the agenda centered mainly on budgets and behind-the-scenes operations of the playoff.

Swarbrick was also asked after the meetings about his thoughts on satellite camps popping up across the country and said "I'm all for it."

"From my perspective, so much of the decisions we make and so much of what we do is designed to promote our institution nationally," he said. "The way we schedule is about that. Maintaining football independence is about that. If Brian's interested in doing that, I'm all for it because it does exactly the same thing."