The Notre Dame Fighting Irish is preparing to face the Ohio State Buckeyes in the College Football Playoff national championship game on Monday.

Notre Dame will be playing for its first national championship since 1988 and in the national title game for the first time since 2012, which was vacated by the NCAA due to sanctions.

It’s been a long time coming for the Fighting Irish, who are led by third-year coach Marcus Freeman.

Additionally, for the second straight year there will not be an SEC team in the championship game. Last year, Michigan beat Washington in the title game.

The SEC’s last chance was Texas, which lost in the Cotton Bowl to Ohio State.

Always College Football is hosted by Greg McElroy, who is an analyst on ESPN but played for Alabama under Nick Saban and led the Crimson Tide to a national title. He had former Fighting Irish quarterback Brady Quinn on the show, and he had something to say about the misconceptions of the name, image and likeness (NIL) space.

He believes it has helped Notre Dame be competitive in college football, close the gap between the Irish and the SEC and, more generally, level the playing field in FBS.

He also said that everyone at Notre Dame is on the same page about NIL, including Freeman, athletic director Pete Bevacqua and university president Rev. Robert A. Dowd.

“If you look at Notre Dame, Ohio State and Michigan last year, and you know — and this is not a slight to the schools in the SEC or your alma mater,” Quinn said. “But I do think there’s a general feel of, ‘Oh look, if there was something that was going on before, maybe it wasn’t happening quite as much up north.’ Now it’s (NIL) you know, a little more above board.”

Quinn helped start a collective at Notre Dame and many of the power conference schools are bringing in their collectives as part of the athletic department starting next summer as a result of the NCAA vs. House settlement that should take effect this summer.

Notre Dame has rigorous academic standards and that’s not changing, Quinn said. But, the money certainly helps re-distribute the talent.

“You look at teams that are taking more advantage of it and obviously if you’re taking money into consideration as the number one factor for why you’re going somewhere, it levels the playing field everywhere,” he said. “It doesn’t matter, if the guy’s got a deal for, you know, three years, four years of less sunshine, less warmth he’s willing to go because he’s being paid. There’s something to be said for that.”