AD Pete Bevacqua explains why Notre Dame football withdrew from bowl game
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At noon Sunday, Dec. 7, Notre Dame football looked to be CFP-bound.
By 4 p.m., the season was over.
Hours after the Fighting Irish were snubbed out of a College Football Playoff spot in the final rankings Sunday, they withdrew their name from bowl game consideration. Just like that, it was onto the offseason for the Notre Dame program.
Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua expanded more on the decision not to play in a bowl game on Tuesday, Dec. 9.
“The team making the decision not to play in this year’s bowl was a decision solely isolated to this year,” Bevacqua said. “We can’t speak for future years. We can’t speak for what the captains on the team feel like.”
Bevacqua noted that once Notre Dame was shut out of the CFP, head coach Marcus Freeman talked to the team’s captains ― Drayk Bowen, Donovan Hinish, Will Pauling, Billy Schrauth, Adon Shuler, and Aamil Wagner ― about their interest in playing in a bowl game.
Given the modern-day nature of the bowl game setup ― most key players sit out to avoid injury ahead of a potential NFL career ― the captains elected not to play in a mostly meaningless contest.
“Marcus (Freeman) places a ton of emphasis on the roles of the captain of the team … these aren’t just the letter ‘C’ pasted onto a jersey and kind of a pat on the back,” Bevacqua said. “They have a real role in our team and in the decisions the team makes. Week-in and week-out, he relies on those captains and really treats them as a key element of the decision-making process.”
Bevacqua noted that Freeman told his players not to make it an emotional decision, but rather a well-thought-out one. Based on the timeline of events on Sunday, it didn’t take long for Notre Dame to bring its 2025 campaign to an end.
“The unanimous message that came back was, we’re such a close team that they wanted to make sure the last team that took the field as part of the 2025 Notre Dame team was the same team that took the field when we got off the plane in Miami,” said Bevacqua, referencing the Irish’s week one game. “They didn’t feel it was right for this team to make the decision to go out there and not be that full team that has been so close together.”
Bevacqua backed his team’s decision.
“It was a decision that I applaud,” Bevacqua said. “I think it was a hard decision; I think they knew it was going to be a hard decision. I think they knew it was going to be a decision that not everyone was going to love. But it was the right decision for this team at this moment.”
Austin Hough is a sports editor within the Center for Community Journalism at USA Today Co., overseeing high school sports and Notre Dame athletics coverage for five Indiana newspapers. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @AustinRHough. Hough can be emailed at ahough@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Pete Bevacqua explains why Notre Dame football withdrew from bowl game
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