Why is Notre Dame not in a conference for college football? Here's what to know as the Irish are set to compete in the CFP championship game on Monday:

But evolution is also a choice. The dinosaurs didn't have to walk into the tar pits. And college football programs -- even old-timers such as Ohio State and Notre Dame -- don't have to walk into the quicksand of mediocrity, led there by the blinders of obligation to keep on keeping on the same way that Knute Rockne and Woody Hayes did.

Ohio State quarterback Will Howard vs. Notre Dame defense. Howard has been in a groove in the playoff, and he has one of the best receiving tandems in the nation in Jeremiah Smith