Notre Dame may never change.
But this year, the Fighting Irish's lack of a conference, the fact that they're a college football independent, may have doomed their chances of making the College Football Playoff.
Notre Dame ended up as the first team out of the field in the rankings announced Sunday.
The Fighting Irish had been ahead of Miami for the last few weeks, despite the Hurricanes beating Notre Dame in August.
Neither of them played Saturday.
But with the ACC facing the prospect of getting shut out entirely, the CFP committee moved Miami ahead of Notre Dame.
The ACC gets a representative. And independent Notre Dame goes to a bowl that it won't want anything to do with.
Obviously, college football benefits greatly from having Notre Dame in its showcase event, too. The Fighting Irish just played in the national championship game last season.
But on the bubble like this, it does appear their lack of conference affiliation may have hurt.
Either Notre Dame would've had a chance to make one final statement in a championship game on Saturday, or it would've benefited from some other conference tug or pull that was happening.
Instead, the Fighting Irish were standing by themselves, and they were left out of the tournament altogether.
It'll certainly make Notre Dame think. Even if tradition is too strong to change their independent status, there will be thoughts about what can be different to avoid having this ever happen again.
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