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andrea adelson
Notre Dame Athletic director Pete Bevacqua told ESPN the program was in “complete disbelief and shock” after being eliminated from the 12-team College Football Playoff on Sunday.
As a result, the Fighting Irish stated that the team has decided not to participate in a bowl game this season.
“As a team, we have decided to withdraw our name from consideration for a bowl game after the 2025 season,” it said in a statement posted on social media. Which was credited to the 2025 Notre Dame football team. “We appreciate all the support from our families and fans, and we look forward to bringing a 12th national title to South Bend in 2026.”
The Irish had been ranked in the top 10 of every CFP ranking before Sunday, when they were placed at No. 11 and the first team eliminated. miamiwhich defeated Notre Dame in Week 1, moving ahead of the Irish in the final rankings to advance to the finals at-large.
Bevacqua expressed frustration with the process, telling ESPN’s Jen Lada that the team felt as if it had the rug pulled out from under it, partly because the Irish believed they were well-positioned to make the field because they were ranked.
In the first CFP rankings released on November 4, Notre Dame was ranked No. 10, and Miami was ranked No. 18. The Irish dropped to number 9 for a few weeks and dropped back to number 10 last week. Miami had slowly climbed the rankings and was 12th last week.
Bevacqua told ESPN that any ranking before the final is a “farce and a complete waste of time”.
Adding to the confusion for Notre Dame was that neither it nor Miami played over the weekend.
CFP selection committee chairman Hunter Yuracheck said Miami’s Head to head win 27-24 There was no deciding factor until the Hurricanes jumped on August 31 against Notre Dame. BYU In the CFP rankings, more teams were evaluated simultaneously. Yurachek also said he encouraged committee members to re-watch the Notre Dame-Miami game from Labor Day weekend on Saturday night.
“Once we got Miami ahead of BYU, we had that side-by-side comparison that everyone was hungry for,” Yurachek said. “You look at those two teams on paper, and they’re almost equal in their schedule strength, their common opponents, results against common opponents.
“But one metric we had to rely on again was head-to-head.”
Notre Dame and Miami finished with 10–2 records and had similar results against common opponents.
As part of a memorandum of understanding signed last year that guarantees the region will have at least 12 teams in 2026 and beyond, Notre Dame will be guaranteed a spot if it finishes in the top 12 starting next year.
By not building it this year, Notre Dame lost a $4 million payment to build the field. All 12 schools that make up the CFP get that amount, but the difference is that Notre Dame, as an independent, does not have to split it with conference members.
Furthermore, under a The deal was agreed in MarchSources told ESPN that the conference champions of the ACC, Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 and the highest-ranked Group of 5 champions will be guaranteed CFP spots. If that had happened this season, the ACC champion ruler Would have made Maidan and Sun Belt the winner james madisonThe second group of 5 delegates, would have been left out.
alabama Overtook Notre Dame last week to reach No. 9 and haven’t dropped in the rankings since lost 28-7 In the SEC Championship Game GeorgiaStaying in a 12-team field.
“Their strength of schedule was the highest in the top 11, and it felt like despite their performance yesterday at the conference championship, they deserve to be within that 9 spot,” Yurachek said.
ESPN’s Heather Dinich contributed to this report.
