James Franklin has some thoughts on Notre Dame and the college football landscape in general as his team prepares to face the Nittany Lions in the Orange Bowl on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. ET in Miami.

Franklin is of the opinion that every team should be in a conference, directly calling out the fact that Notre Dame is not in a conference. Franklin also said he thinks every league should play the same number of conference games.

“This is no knock at coach or Notre Dame, but I think everybody should be in a conference,” Franklin said Wednesday. “I think everybody should play a conference championship game or no one should play a conference championship game. I think everybody should play the same number of conference games.

“But, just the numbers are going to make things challenging if you’re playing one more conference game. I just think things need to be more consistent across college football.”

Franklin has a point here. With the way the College Football Playoff is set up and the way the committee is set up, some have argued that a loss in a conference championship game could cause a team to not make it into the postseason when they otherwise would have.

Regardless of one’s view on that, it will be interesting to see how things shake out with the winner set to go to the national title game to play for college football’s top honor.