No, but if Cincinnati wins Saturday, and the rest of the chalk holds, and we get a playoff of Georgia, Michigan, Oklahoma State and Cincinnati, that might change some things. Theoretically, if they were in the ACC, they'd be playing in a championship game and may get a bump from that. And even if something happened to Michigan, Oklahoma State or Cincinnati, will Notre Dame at 1 loss, get the nod over Alabama with 2 losses, and their loss was to the #1 seed in an extra game that Notre Dame didn't have to play?
I don't think so. Unless Bama is blown out, they will take that last spot over Notre Dame. If 2 of the top 4 lose, then all bets are off (unless it's Georgia).
I know Notre Dame can look at their appearances in the playoff and say, hey, we don't need a conference because we can make the playoff. Well yeah, if you go undefeated. What if you mess up and drop one like this year?
This may not be enough though, because their TV deal and keeping the national independent brand may be more attractive. They really need to win a title at some point though, which just got harder with Kelly leaving.