Notre Dame Football is staying independent.

With many college football and college athletic programs shifting into a new conference, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick confirmed that Notre Dame Football will remain independent from any of the NCAA conferences, per Tyler Horka of on3.com.

“Every one of these stories is about us. What's Notre Dame going to do? It's reinforcing our positioning.”

Swarbrick's confirmation is amid major changes across NCAA conferences, including UCLA and USC moving to the Big Ten and Oklahoma and Texas crossing over to the SEC in 2024. Yet Swarbrick stands firm that they have no intention of following suit of these other teams.

“There have been times when people thought giving [independence] up was inevitable. I don’t get that sense right now.”

Notre Dame is one of only four schools who remain outside of one of the athletic conferences including Army, UConn, and Umass Amherst. Outside of the Fighting Irish football and ice hockey teams, the rest of the college's athletic programs compete in the ACC.

Notre Dame is able to maintain their independence in part due to their television contract and partnership with NBC, which gives them the financial benefit and security they need. The Fighting Irish football program also still gets part of the revenue from the ACC's television deals and also a payout from the College Football Playoff, even when they don't qualify for it. Their independence also gives them a scheduling advantage as they are only obligated to play five games each season versus ACC opponents and can for the most part pick the rest of their opponents.

All these advantages point to Notre Dame staying out of the conference realignment.