Snubbed by the College Football Playoff, Notre Dame snubbed its nose at a second-tier bowl game.
The ninth-ranked Fighting Irish responded to getting dropped in the CFP rankings for the second consecutive week by turning down an invitation to play in the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando, Florida.
“As a team, we’ve decided to withdraw our name from consideration for a bowl game following the 2025 season,” Notre Dame wrote in a statement posted to its official X account. “We appreciate all the support from our families and fans, and we’re hoping to bring the 12th national title to South Bend in 2026.”
Although it might be the exact reaction that many Notre Dame fans wanted, it’s far from ideal for the long-term viability of non-playoff bowl games.
The decision also denies Notre Dame’s seniors a chance for one final game, denies underclassmen from a few extra weeks of practice and denies a legion of fans — is there a bigger brand in college football? — from watching this team play again.
Unlike Iowa State and Kansas State, which each got fined $500,000 by the Big 12 for opting out of a bowl game because of coaching changes, Notre Dame won’t get punished because it’s not a full-fledged member of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Despite winning every game for nearly three months, Notre Dame dropped behind Miami in the final CFP rankings and was left out of the 12-team bracket entirely.
The Fighting Irish, who won their last 10 games by an average of nearly 30 points, watched championship weekend from afar, idle as an independent with no options to impress the selection committee one last time in a league title game.
Athletic director Pete Bevacqua and coach Marcus Freeman had taken the high road in recent weeks, avoiding too much lobbying and believing their winning streak would be enough to earn a berth over Alabama.
Miami (10-2) ended up knocking the Irish (10-2) out.
With BYU losing to Texas Tech in the Big 12 title game, the committee ranked Miami and Notre Dame next to each other and turned to the head-to-head metric to determine which one would get the No. 10 seed.
It was Miami, which beat Notre Dame 27-24 in Week 1 of the regular season.
Hunter Yurachek, the chair of the selection committee, said members rewatched the game and were struck by Miami’s shutting down of a Notre Dame running game in a way nobody else did this season.
“Then there was observation from the coaches in the room where Notre Dame did a lot of chasing of some of the athletic receivers, especially on the Miami side,” Yurachek said. “And it just felt like there was a little bit more athleticism on the side of Miami versus Notre Dame.”
The Hurricanes will play at Texas A&M in the opening round of the playoff.
No. 12 BYU, No. 13 Vanderbilt and No. 14 Texas — and, to a lesser extent, Atlantic Coast Conference champion Duke — are sure to have issues with the final CFP standings, too.
“We are not entitled to anything and we’re not victimized by any process or any committee,” Vandy coach Clark Lea said. “This is about ownership over what we’ve created, and the opportunity we created for ourselves is to go and know exactly what our season is going to be finished.”
But no one has a bigger gripe than Notre Dame, which dropped one spot after beating Stanford 49-20 and then fell another while not playing.
Fans online had demanded the Irish boycott their bowl game, cancel their scheduling agreement with the ACC and reassess future slates. Some called for Bevacqua to be fired.
Notre Dame lost consecutive games to open the season against teams that made the playoff — Miami and Texas A&M, by a combined four points — and has been as good as anyone in the country since.
Alabama, meanwhile, became the first three-loss team to make the CFP field. Yurachek explained the logic after the Crimson Tide lost 28-7 to Georgia in the SEC championship game.
“Their strength of schedule was the highest in the top 11, and (it) felt like in spite of their performance yesterday in the conference championship, they deserve to stay within that nine spot,” Yurachek said.
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