The Notre Dame Fighting Irish were the first team out during the College Football Playoff rankings on Selection Sunday. The previously No. 9 and 10-2 Fighting Irish were dropped out of the field in favor of the Miami Hurricanes, who had a similar record and jumped up two spots to No. 10.
The Fighting Irish, who had gone on a 10-game winning streak after losing 27-24 to Miami in their season opener, immediately reacted by declining their Pop-Tarts Bowl invitation against the BYU Cougars to end their season controversially. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets will now play the Cougars in the bowl game at Camping World Stadium in Orlando.
Notre Dame A.D. Blasts ACC’s Politicking Leading to Playoff Snub
During Sunday’s segment of the “Dan Patrick Show,” Fighting Irish athletic director Pete Bevacqua blasted the ACC for championing the Miami versus Notre Dame cause despite the entities’ shared relationship.
“I have tremendous respect for Miami and all the teams in the ACC, wonderful universities,” Bevacqua said. “We have no gripes about any of the schools in the ACC. But we were mystified by the actions of the conference, to attack their biggest business partner in football and a member of their conference in 24 other sports.
“They’ve done permanent damage in the relationship between the conference and Notre Dame. We didn’t appreciate the fact that we were singled out repeatedly and compared to Miami. It raised a lot of eyebrows that the conference was taking shots at us and everyone was saying that we were a handful of teams that could’ve won this whole thing,” he added.
The ACC’s topsy-turvy season raised a stark possibility that the Power Five conference would not have a representative in the College Football Playoff. The 8-5 Duke Blue Devils beat the No. 19 Virginia Cavaliers in the conference championship game, leaving the ACC on the brink of Selection Sunday; therefore, there is lobbying for Miami to be included.
According to PFSN’s College Football Playoff Meter, the Fighting Irish and the Hurricanes had the No. 35 and No. 42 toughest strength of schedules in college football.
Hunter Yurachek Explains Fighting Irish’s Playoff Exclusion
During an appearance on CBS Sports on Sunday, College Football Playoff chairman Hunter Yurachek explained the Fighting Irish’s exclusion from the 12-team field, laying the blame at their narrow loss to the Hurricanes.
“Once we moved Miami ahead of BYU, then we had that side-by-side comparison that everybody had been hungering for,” Yurachek said.
“You look at those two teams on paper, and they are almost equal in their schedule strength, their common opponents, the results against common opponents. But the one metric we had to fall back on, again, was the head-to-head.”
The repercussions of Notre Dame’s exclusion from the 12-team field have continued to generate discourse about the future of ranking shows leading up to Selection Sunday among fans, coaches, and analysts.
