New Delhi, Aug. 5 -- Marcus Freeman walked into training camp with a short list of topics he was not willing to discuss, and the College Football Playoff was at the top of it.

the only thing he wanted to talk about was Wisconsin.

"We didn't earn the opportunity," Freeman said, when the 2025 playoff exclusion came up. "We didn't earn the right to play more than 12 games last year." He has not contested the selection committee's verdict. He has accepted it as causality - the two early losses, both by single digits, turned a potential playoff season into a lesson about what eight months of dominance still cannot overcome. What it can be, he says, is fuel for one game at a time.

The Irish open September at Lambeau Field, their sixth straig...