It wasn’t expected but always lurking in the background in the lead up to the final College Football Playoff Committee Rankings this Sunday afternoon. Notre Dame could have the rug pulled out from underneath them at the last moment. That’s exactly what transpired as the Irish get left out of the 12-team playoff in favor of the likes of James Madison, Tulane, Miami, and Alabama.
#1
Miami and the ACC spent a fortune in the social media space to vilify Notre Dame getting into the playoffs but for the Irish the real problem was Alabama getting in anyway. Let’s recap the nonsense for historical purposes:
With 1 game remaining in the regular season things stood at #9 Notre Dame, #10 Alabama, #11 BYU, and #12 Miami. All 4 teams won but the Tide did so, by far, in the ugliest manner possible. Despite that, Alabama moved up to #9 ahead of Notre Dame.
In the conference championship games, both BYU and Alabama got soundly beaten. The committee dropped BYU from #11 to #12 and out of the playoffs. Alabama did NOT drop at all and remained the #9 seed. The committee then had Miami and Notre Dame next to each other and decided head-to-head should matter, the Irish were out.
BYU went 1-1 with a blowout loss and dropped 1 spot.
Miami went 1-0 and moved up 2 spots.
Notre Dame went 1-0 and dropped 2 spots.
Alabama went 1-1 with a blowout loss and moved up 1 spot.
#2
Following Alabama’s 28-7 loss to Georgia yesterday Tide quarterback Ty Simpson said he wasn’t worried about not making the playoffs and that they have the best offense in the country. All this coming off a game in which Alabama gained -3 rushing yards against the Dawgs. Best offense in the country, except when they don’t play that way it really upsets them. Poor guys!
Despite 3 losses with weeks and weeks of struggling, the Tide will get another shot in the playoffs.
“We know we have the best offense in the country.”
More from Ty Simpson on the Alabama offense after a “frustrating” loss to Georgia in the SEC Championship. pic.twitter.com/v0LXAYVEzS
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) December 7, 2025
Even better, Alabama gets to travel to Norman and play an Oklahoma team they coughed up and lost to just under a month ago. That’s so nice they get a little do-over!
I thought Notre Dame should’ve been in over Miami but I don’t have a huge problem that the Hurricanes got in instead of us. Head-to-head should matter and I’m able to swallow honoring the regular season in that capacity. This Alabama team, tripping over themselves and looking so discombobulated, and being served up a playoff spot on a silver platter is disgusting work from the playoff committee.
THIS Alabama team is the only one over the last 3 seasons to lose their conference championship game and not move down at least one spot in the rankings. That’s a travesty.
#3
I’ll have something this week on an expanded playoff and a 16-team format is going to make days like this a lot less common. However, I think the time has come for the sport to re-think the nature of the playoff committee.
I’m 100% on board with bringing back computer ranking models as the basis for the playoff spots. There are 12 people on the committee, which is absurd. At most, I’d trim that down to 5 and preferably 3 people. We don’t need many human-level decisions for the playoffs. The level of absurdity of a room full of Boomers watching film and being provided presentations from all these different schools is incredibly stupid and corrupt.
Maybe it’s all corrupt and doesn’t matter anyway. But, reducing the human element and getting rid of the ridiculous weekly show farce that drives the country crazy is a step in the right direction.
#4
Notre Dame decided to decline a bowl invitation and I think it was the right move. This may seem highly controversial today but in the future this will probably be a lot more common in the playoff era. Good teams who miss the playoffs are going to have a lot of incentive to sit out the decaying carcass of the exhibition bowl games.
With the playoff snub on the brain it was an easy decision. Now, ESPN can’t make money off the program. Too bad.
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) December 7, 2025
Notre Dame looked locked into the Pop-Tarts Bowl against BYU. Sure, that’s a decent opponent given the circumstances but with all due respect to Kellanova, this team did not need Marcus Freeman and a couple players picking away at a giant Pop-Tart all smiley and giggling with a win over the Cougars.
It’s going to be a long winter. Only 273 more days until Notre Dame opens up the season at Lambeau Field against Wisconsin.
If not for the weekly rankings show, being left out would probably have been OK. Notre Dame is clearly better than any team playing next weekend (metrics say so), but if you’d said, ‘Well, you don’t have the resume, Miami beat you and we’re not going to punish a title-game loss to a team they’d already beaten,’ fine.
But it’s the blatant corruption of it all. Saying idle teams can move around and bumping Alabama up specifically to avoid the Tide being bid-thieved, and transparently planning to shove Miami into the playoff to avoid the ACC being excluded. Putting ND in solid playoff position for 6 solid weeks straight, saying you thought ND was better than Miami, and then making the switch at the last minute for obviously corrupt reasons – THAT bothers me.
And I don’t care for ducking the bowl either. I get why – and if the team came out with a statement saying specifically they don’t want to reward ESPN for using us for rage-bait for 6 weeks then dumping us out of the playoff, I’d respect that – but I think in 3 or 4 days the guys might feel differently than they do now and want to play. I want to start the revenge tour right effing now.
I agree with all of what you say. Plus, I just like watching ND play football, so I’m disappointed we don’t get to watch football again until September.
Yeah this whole process just reveals that the emperor has no clothes and that there’s no real legitimacy to the whole thing.
I say Notre Dame should have gunned for Washington State in their own made up bowl to get the extra practice, all televised on NBC.
I agree completely with Eric. Including over the bowl game, with due respect Andy, though on this issue reasonable opinions will differ. But I do concur we could benefit by a reasoned followup statement, to help focus attention on the Alabama/corruption issue a bit more.
And it is truly distressing how long it’s going to be until Lambeau Field.
I have zero problem with anyone who sides with us opting out. Reasonable minds can differ, and if the players voted – sounds like they did, and by a huge margin – what I think means nothing at all.
I have to agree with the players that it really wouldn’t be the same team.
Unfortunately, next season is another cake schedule. No SEC, three scrubby B1G plus USC. From the ACC there’s Miami, and then maybe SMU and Syracuse are good. Maybe Navy is good. Since it’ll take at least 11 wins to guarantee a playoff berth next year with that lineup then the lads might as well win all 12 and enter the playoffs riding the longest unbeaten, untied streak in ND history at 23, tying the 88-89 teams.
I’ve entertained the “hey what if A&M is our last loss for a long time” idea for quite a while now. If Freeman can harness this into next year we’ll see something special.
Err, i guess i was accidentally counting a bowl win that isn’t going to happen. So undefeated means first round bye. Tie the streak in the quarterfinals, break it in the semis.
Bevacqua said the new Playoff deal guarantees ND a spot in the field if the team is ranked in the top 12. Assuming no Northern Illinois-esque losses, it seems highly unlikely that there is a scenario where 2 loss ND misses the field going forward.
Eh, the committee can just shove us to #13 if they don’t think we’re good enough. We just clearly saw that there are no rules or principles, really.
Yep – BYU, Vandy & Utah could jump ND at 10-2/11-2 to push ND to #14 this year
“Best offense in the country”…maybe if you don’t count points on the scoreboard. Bama twice over 30 points vs power 4 teams… ND 9 times. 6 times over 40. 3 times over 50.
I think declining the bowl game is legally and strategically necessary. Pretty soon, we’re probably going to be arguing that the ACC has breached its contract with us. We can’t make that argument while at the same time accepting the benefits of that contact, namely ACC bowl bids. Our position is that ND’s agreement with the ACC is over.
Also, it isn’t feasible to have our AD and coach calling ESPN’s playoff a farce, then three weeks later have them attend ESPN’s Pop-Tarts party in Orlando. Just like you said, Eric.
I get why people are disappointed but I think it has to be this way.
I’m glad we declined the bowl bid and the school did put out a statement about why. It’s a farce at this point and while I have been a bowl game defender, because I think they can matter still for a lot of teams, Notre Dame is in the exact position where it does *not*. A bunch of guys would sit, another guy getting a season-long injury would be a travesty. But it’s bitter to just end the season this way, no doubt.
I can’t find the school’s statement as to why? Only what the AD said to the ESPN reporter.
Looks like you’re right, my apologies! I conflated the statement the team itself put out (as “official”) with what the AD said publicly.
Remember how Men’s Lacrosse was controversially snubbed for the playoff in 2022?
We’ll have more on that comparison!
I hate, hate, hate the weekly rankings. Every year, the committee paints themselves into a corner only to work their way out using absurd post hoc explanations to avoid the obvious: protect the status quo. Being left out I can accept; being jerked around for a month I cannot.
I just don’t get why we didn’t leap back over Bama after they lost. We play OU and Bama heads off to College Station. Sorry ACC, but your tiebreakers are bad. Fix them.
I’m sad to lose the chance to see Love for a few more games in our uniform.
Just read the comments to Chris Vnnini’s article on the Athletic criticizing ND’s decision not to play in the espn/pop tart commercial. Of 177 comments, probably 174 were in favor of ND’s decision and trashed Vannini’s rationale. I’m sure that will change, but it was nice to see.
The Athletic isn’t ESPN but they have their favorites and seem happy to defend the SEC’s honor to the last.
Or maybe he’s trying to get hired by ESPN
Hey, I am owed more traumatic brain injuries in the name of pop tarts
Really, this is on Freeman for never having his team ready at the start of the season. Every year other teams know their strengths and weaknesses to start the season, and Freeman hasn’t figured out how to get there at the beginning of a year yet. He’s a young head coach, and he’s improved in so many areas. I have no doubt this will be one of his biggest areas of focus going forward.
(2025) Protecting new QB, understood but probably too much, New DC, understood. but yep bad. Playing 2 playoff teams 1st – 2 games, understood. New they were the 2 toughest games. Being 1 screwy play in each from 2-0. Toughest 1st two games of any team in nation. Not aggressive enough on O & D in hindsight.
(2024) 4-1 in Sept. with a horrid loss.
(2023) Start 4-0, outscoring opponents 183-47, then lost to tOSU by 3pts. Losses in Oct. & Nov.
(2021) bad start 3-3, Oh ya, QBs Drew Pyne & Tyler Buchner. New coach learns he needs a good QB among other things.
Never ready ? nah. You can’t lose 2 games because you leave it up to the committee.
2025 – Also gave up 30 to Purdue, the most they scored against any non-FCS/Ball State team all year.
2024 – Northern Illinois. Come on.
2023 – I would argue that team didn’t find its identity until the USC game. The opening 4 game stretch might be the softest opening 4 in ND history.
2022 – Marshall. Come on.
For whatever reason, I just don’t think ND has found its identity under Freeman until at least game 3 (and often closer to game 5 or 6) under Freeman. This isn’t a thing exclusive to Freeman; most college teams don’t know who they are until mid-year (hell, Alabama has no identity right NOW as a PLAYOFF team).
But if Freeman wants to win a National Title, it’s going to be hard to do so without getting a better sense in training camp of what the team should be (not impossible, as last year’s squad nearly showed). As of right now, though, in my eyes it’s his biggest weakness.
Stats and records don’t back you up. 23′ He can only play the teams on the schedule. 24′ he beats A&M 1st game on the road. That’s plenty ready. Then giant letdown followed by 13 wins in a row.
Let me add, a new QB every year is always a feeling out process to a degree, for every coach.
I don’t know to take it as a slap in the face or just more fuel for revenge, but the AP poll ending up at #9 ND, #10 Miami, and #11 Alabama just goes to show how made up and predetermined the selection process was
Ooooof.
Being left out of what they refer to as “The College Football Playoff” seems like a huge injustice for Notre Dame until you understand that they were actually left out of the SEC\B1G challenge. The winner will come from one of the eight teams that those conferences control. Anyone who was a threat to that had to be left out. Does that sound like I’m a conspiracy theorist? All that aside, those two conferences have really hosed up college athletics for the big bucks.
Alabama the #1 seed in the SEC championship, is the SEC #5 seed in the CFB playoff, and were #5 before getting hammered Saturday. That tells me there’s really not a great team in that league. For sure ND was a threat.