There’s no doubt Notre Dame was screwed when it comes to the College Football Playoff. There’s very little justification one can make for leaving out the Irish for two early-season, one-score losses to Miami and Texas A&M (both playoff teams), but giving Alabama the No. 9 seed after losing to Oklahoma and Georgia (also both playoff teams), as well as Florida State — while struggling to narrow one-score wins in another four games
This is essentially the argument our own Nick Simon made when talking about how the committee got it wrong by excluding the Irish in favor of Bama. There’s also a case to be made for Notre Dame being a better team than Miami, who despite winning their head-to-head matchup, had far more embarassing losses to 8-4 Louisville and SMU — only getting in due to the ACC’s bizarre tiebreaker scenario which put Duke into the championship game and made Miami them the best team in the conference by default.
In summation: Yes, you were done dirty — but that’s the extent of the olive branch being extended, because MY GOD Y’ALL ARE WHINING SO DAMN MUCH!
It’s as if nobody in the history of football has been screwed out of a bowl game or trip to the postseason. Instead of just accepting an unfair result and using it as fuel for a revenge campaign in 2026, Notre Dame has spent 24 hours (and counting) whining endlessly about the playoff committee’s decision like a petulant child throwing a tantrum after being told they can’t have ice cream for dinner.
They’re skipping bowl games as Notre Dame takes their ball and goes home
This is purely a revenge play by Notre Dame to hurt college football for daring to insult the Irish. It’s designed to hurt the financial viability of non-playoff bowl games by removing a huge team with a mammoth following as punishment for not giving Notre Dame what it wanted — which was preferential treatment in the rankings.
We know Notre Dame wants this preferential treatment because of reports of legal documents that were signed by the school and the NCAA set to go into effect next year. These dictate that the Irish must be included in the playoffs if they are ranked No. 12 or above moving forward.
Yeah, the Irish have chosen to shoot themselves in the foot by not joining and conference and playing their way in — but hey, at least they can get the lawyers involved to write their way into the postseason instead.
A Notre Dame theology professor praised students for standing up to the ESPN machine
Dr. Timothy P. O’Malley made his X account (formerly Twitter) private shortly after posting about the peerless bravery of Notre Dame students for standing up to the machine. Prior to that be wrote:
“I’m proud of my students. They made this decision—they’re allowed not to be used by ESPN to make more money. After they were already used by ESPN to make a lot of money.”
If you had trouble reading that because you were distracted by a jangling sound, sorry. It was my watch as I made endless jerk-off motions in the air. It’s especially hilarious considering that THE ENTIRE REASON NOTRE DAME REMAINS INDEPENDENT IS TO MAKE MONEY! The de facto team for every Catholic in America, Notre Dame’s brand is extremely strong. They have their own special TV deal which pays them over $22M a year with NBC, they get to keep 100% of their brand revenue without sharing, and the flexibility of scheduling their own opponents allows them to maximize profits on a per-game basis, while ensuring they can build a schedule which always makes them look strong without the risk of those pesky conference opponents.
Their athletic director is attacking the ACC
So what exactly was the rationale here? Bevacqua thinks the ACC should have advocated for Notre Dame to get into the playoffs over Miami for … reasons? I get that the ACC’s whole tiebreaker system is archaic and patently ACC — which means it was likely drawn up on a bar napkin in the leaky stock room of a Greensboro Motel 6 in 1967, and nobody has bothered to revisit it, but give me a friggin’ break.
This is some strong arm shit from Notre Dame to put the ACC on notice. This, despite the fact the ACC allows it to compete in all their less lucrative sports, in exchange for getting the ND brand into basketball and scheduling more ACC opponents in football.
I know it might be tough for Notre Dame to believe, but not everything in the world revolves around Notre Dame. Not every decision is made with Notre Dame in mind. The ACC tiebreaker not involving College Football ranking is extremely dumb and needs to be revisited, but it didn’t happen with the express purpose of hurting Notre Dame. Meanwhile, it’s transparently obvious that signing a legal agreement with the NCAA to ensure your team is in (as Notre Dame did) is vastly more damaging to conferences like the ACC than the reverse.
How long is this whining going to go on for?
I get that Notre Dame is working through their Kübler-Ross model and are still stuck in the second phase, which is anger — but my goodness the way the Irish are crashing out over this is pathetic. It’s not nearly as bad as Florida’s attorney general looking into bringing a lawsuit over FSU’s exclusion in 2023, but we absolutely can’t rule that out, especially with Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court.
Please just fast-forward to “acceptance,” Notre Dame. It’ll be better for everyone, and less embarassing to boot. We know how good your team is, and they’ll be a factor for a long, long time. So just think of 2025 as a blip on the radar to move forward.
Or, I dunno, join a conference like an adult.
