Paul Sullivan: Notre Dame is justified in taking a stand against the College Football Playoff farce

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CHICAGO — The great farce that’s playing out in the College Football Playoff is likely to do lasting damage to Notre Dame’s relationship with the rest of the world.

But not everyone liked “Rudy” to begin with, so the idea that everyone would agree Notre Dame was unfairly bounced from the playoff field when the CFP committee changed its mind at the last minute was far-fetched to begin with.

There’s no such thing as “luck of the Irish” when it comes to selecting a playoff field, so in the aftermath of the unexplainable snubbing, Touchdown Jesus is taking a seat and Notre Dame justifiably said “no thanks” to a participation trophy.

When you’re Notre Dame — with all your bona fide 20th-century legends, from Knute Rockne to “the Gipper” to Joe Montana, along with a TV network doing the necessary myth-making to link the current team to its storied past — you’re used to taking the hits from critics.

But because you’re a unicorn in college football as an independent, and a Catholic university to boot, you’re supposed to shut up and count your blessings: all that TV revenue that doesn’t have to be shared and a national fan base that never stops watching.

Sometimes, however, you have to take a stand. And that’s what Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua is doing by declining a bowl invitation and slamming the process that left the Irish as the odd team out of the CFP field.

Notre Dame is no saint of the college football world, or else it wouldn’t have hired Brian Kelly to lead its program a decade ago. But Kelly is long gone, and if you removed the name “Notre Dame” from this CFP saga and replaced it with a less polarizing school like Vanderbilt, the entire college football nation would be outraged by the decision to leapfrog one team over another for the final at-large spot without either team having played.

Now the question is what is Notre Dame going to do about it, without looking too much like … you know, Notre Dame. It’s the Frasier Crane of universities, always acting a little loftier than the rest.

Bevacqua is scheduled to hold a news conference Tuesday in South Bend, Ind., which should provide some answers. Notre Dame’s first move was to remove itself from ESPN’s bowlfest of non-playoff games that serve as appetizers for the main meal, a controversial decision that affects the program’s revenues while ending a great season on a down note for seniors who won’t go on to a pro career and wanted one last hurrah.

The Irish reportedly were invited to play BYU in the Pop-Tarts Bowl, in which the winning team gets to eat a giant Pop-Tart. The Irish decided it was more prudent not only to avoid ultraprocessed foods for the holidays, but also to make a stand on the snub heard ’round the world.

Notre Dame was mocked on cue for bringing back the old-school “it’s our ball and we’re going home” strategy that we all enjoyed during childhood games. But it makes perfect sense. Why would the Irish want to play in an overhyped, third-tier bowl game when they were deserving of a spot at the big table with the rest of the top teams?

It’s a tribute to the character of several Notre Dame players who agreed to take this stand knowing their playing days might be over. This is bigger than football and something they’ll carry the rest of their lives. Hopefully Bevacqua brings some of the student-athletes to his news conference and lets them explain why they believe it’s the right thing to do.

Answering questions is something the committee members surely won’t do. CFP Chairman Hunter Yurachek, who is also Arkansas’ athletic director, said he told the committee members to rewatch the Miami-Notre Dame game, which happened in Week 1. That suggests he believed the Hurricanes needed another look before the final ranking, which might have stuck in the committee’s minds even though it was more than three months ago.

Apparently he didn’t tell anyone to rewatch Alabama’s loss to Florida State, also in Week 1, which was far worse than either of Notre Dame’s losses to Miami and Texas A&M.

“I just think there was one team left out that I just don’t think should have been left out in some kind of way,” ESPN analyst Nick Saban said Sunday. “But there was no way around it.”

Well, there was one way. The committee could’ve left out Alabama considering the Crimson Tide fell behind both Notre Dame and Miami in the final AP poll and lost by 21 points to Georgia in the SEC title game. Saban, the Alabama legend, didn’t think that was necessary to mention. Roll Tide!

Fans often shout, “Join a conference!” to Notre Dame, and ESPN talking heads Stephen A. Smith and Paul Finebaum predictably did just that Monday when discussing Notre Dame’s complaint that it was jobbed. Finebaum called the Irish “whining, crying, sniveling” over their fate, after earlier saying it would have been “egregious” to leave out his beloved Alabama.

There are still a few weeks left in 2025, but Finebaum might be the favorite for Disney Co.’s Employee of the Year for bolstering the ESPN/SEC marriage.

In the modern-day, NIL-era version of college football, Notre Dame isn’t really saying “it’s our ball and we’re going home” by declining a bowl invitation but pointing out that “it’s our brand and you need us.”

It’s not so much the game they’re depriving us of since stars like Jeremiyah Love probably wouldn’t even have played. It’s the ratings they’re depriving ESPN of, not to mention the fine folks at Mars Inc., which is in the process of acquiring Kellanova, which makes Pop-Tarts, Cheez-It, Pringles and other products craved by couch potatoes everywhere.

Sorry, ESPN and Mars, but you’ll have to suffice with BYU-Georgia Tech in the Pop-Tarts Bowl.

Meanwhile, Bevacqua on Monday told “The Dan Patrick Show” that the school’s relationship with the ACC was “permanently damaged” by what he called “attacks” on Notre Dame during the weekslong run-up to the final ranking.

Does that mean a bitter divorce is likely? Bring lawyers, guns and money, just in case.

Bevacqua is being oversensitive. The ACC did lobby for Miami over Notre Dame, but that’s not a big surprise. Sure, the ACC Network aired a replay of Miami’s win over Notre Dame 12 straight times to prove the conference’s point that the Hurricanes deserved a spot ahead of the Irish, but so what? It doesn’t have much other programming to offer besides infomercials and Dabo Swinney’s diatribes.

ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips certainly touted Miami, but Phillips was once associate AD at Notre Dame and isn’t known to be a leprechaun hater. Bevacqua’s beef should be with the SEC lobbyists from ESPN as much as with the ACC, so perhaps he can have a beer summit with Phillips to try to mend fences.

According to Notre Dame’s agreement with the ACC — of which it is a member in every sport except football and men’s ice hockey — it is contractually obligated to join the conference in football if it decides to give up its independent status by 2036. But even if the Irish do change their stance on football independence, it seems unlikely now they would join the ACC, a loser in the high-stakes game of conference realignment.

The best option might be to end the agreement in which Notre Dame plays five ACC teams annually and bring in a bigger slate of games versus Big Ten teams. Adding strong programs such as longtime rival Michigan, would-be in-state rival Indiana and Ohio State to the schedule, along with good, old, reliable Purdue, would make it even harder for Notre Dame to make the CFP field. But it certainly would be great theater for college football fans.

As for the committee members who blundered their way into CFP history, no one appears accountable because the votes never will be revealed. Conspiracy theories were perhaps inevitable, including one that Alabama was a lock to remain in the field because of Yurachek and other members with SEC ties: Former coach Mike Riley played on Alabama’s 1973 championship team; Wesley Walls was a tight end at Ole Miss; Virginia AD Carla Williams was an All-SEC basketball guard at Georgia; and former Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio was brought to East Lansing, Mich., by Saban, the current godfather of SEC football.

This is just a coincidence, I believe, since most members have ties to multiple schools and only Riley is truly connected to Alabama. It would benefit the committee members to release their votes for full transparency and to dispel any speculation of a pro-SEC bias, but don’t hold your breath.

So the show goes on, without the Irish.

Take a hike, Rudy. Your happy ending has been rewritten.

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