Notre Dame is one of those schools that people either love or hate. At least when it comes to sports. There’s a few other places like that, say Michigan, but few college sports programs are more polarizing than the Fighting Irish.
I imagine that bifurcation will only grow in aftermath of the announcement of this year’s 12 team college football playoffs. Five of those teams are conference winners, including Indiana and Georgia, two of the top three seeds. The other seven are at large selections, chosen by the Playoff Committee based on a long list of criteria and stats. Some of these selections were easy, like Ohio State and Ole Miss. The final picks, not so much. And this year’s final at-large team was Miami, the only team picked from the ACC despite not making the conference title game. The Hurricanes finished 10-2, including an opening week win at home by three points over Notre Dame. Which meant the first team on the outside looking in was Notre Dame, who also finished 10-2 with an opening week loss on the road by three points to Miami. You can see the story line here. Basically, the committee looked at these two teams with similar resumes and decided their head-to-head meeting would be the tiebreaker.
The only problem is that in the weeks leading up to the final selection, the Committee had consistently ranked Notre Dame ahead of Miami. In fact, in every one of the six weekly rankings, Notre Dame was in front. It wasn’t until the final week, when neither team was playing, that they switched spots. The Committee explained that it wasn’t until the last week, when they were confronted with both teams vying for the final spot, that they considered head-to-head as a tiebreaker. Previous rankings didn’t need to consider that possibility. You may or may not like that explanation, although from a layman’s perspective, it’s doesn’t sound great.
Someone who definitely didn’t appreciate it was Notre Dame athletics director Pete Bevacqua, who called the rankings a joke, a gut punch, and said the committee basically stole a playoff spot from their student athletes. He also soon thereafter said Notre Dame would not participate in a Bowl Game, and then went on to rip into the ACC, which had been lobbying for Miami to earn a spot – which you would expect. Bevacqua said that the ACC has caused permanent damage to their relationship. It gets a bit more complicated, as Notre Dame is part of the ACC in most sports, but not football, although they play at least five ACC teams every season. Even more in the weeds, the ACC largely saved Notre Dame’s season during COVID, offering them a scheduling partner so they could play. It came off as the kind of entitled rant you’d expect from a program that is perceived to play by different rules than everyone else, including having their own TV deal with NBC. Others have said as much, including Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormack, who called Notre Dame’s comments egregious and out of bounds. I imagine outside of the Fighting Irish faithful, of which there are many, this is pretty much the sentiment. Even if you believed they got hosed a bit, at this point, you’re glad they did.
I won’t speak much to how the committee did in picking teams, including the last minute switcheroo. Look, I think Duke has a grievance as well, at least compared to James Madison. Regardless, this is less about who got in and who got snubbed and more about the notion of expectation and entitlement in college sports. Another team on the outside is Vanderbilt, who also finished 10-2 in the vaunted SEC. When asked about missing the playoffs, their coach said, “we had our opportunities and we didn’t do enough. We are not victims in this process.” Perhaps he was reading the room and wanted to take the high road when Notre Dame sunk low. Or, maybe when you’re at Vandy, better known for Fulbright scholars than Heisman candidates, you don’t expect the wind to always be at your back. So when you don’t quite get there, you might be more likely to look inward than lay blame elsewhere. Not to say that Notre Dame doesn’t have a gripe. It’s just feels like the tone of someone who always expects to get what they want.
And why Notre Dame is a school that lots of people love to hate.
Keith Strudler is the Dean of the College of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him at @KeithStrudler.
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