Why the ACC Being Mad at Notre Dame is Purely Laughable

Flashback to August 31, 2025.

Notre Dame and Miami are playing in what would ultimately become one of the most important games of the entire college football season.

After Miami dominated early, Notre Dame roared back, only to lose by a field goal in the final moments.

By regular season's end, Miami got into the College Football Playoff largely because of that win it had over Notre Dame, a team it shared an identical 10-2 record with at season's end.

What If Notre Dame Didn't Play Miami in 2025?

Now imagine a world where Notre Dame didn't have a five-game deal with the ACC each year, and Miami instead played someone like Florida A&M.

Miami would have won easily and been sitting at home for the College Football Playoff last winter, instead of making a run all the way to the National Championship game.

Two losses to SMU and Louisville would have been too much for Miami to overcome to make the Playoff had it not had the impressive win over Notre Dame.

CJ Carr is hit as he throws against Miami in 202 — Aug 31, 2025; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback CJ Carr (13) throws the ball to avoid a sack against the Miami Hurricanes at Hard Rock Stadium. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

That game alone shows the value Notre Dame brings to the ACC.

Despite that, ACC coaches and athletic directors still can't keep themselves from complaining about the Fighting Irish.

Opposing ACC Coaches, ADs, Mad About Notre Dame's ACC Deal

Told to Brett McMurphy for an On3 piece, one industry source said of Notre Dame:

“Notre Dame is the guy that walks in the house, opens the fridge, eats all the food, then (screws) the wife, kicks the dog, doesn’t pay the mortgage and walks out without any skin in the game.”

Aside from the already established part that beating Notre Dame, as Miami did, validates a team in the eyes of the CFP committee, it also helps at the box office.

Now, I won't pretend to know who the source was that made the money quote of McMurphy's article, but let's do a quick experiment together.

Notre Dame's ACC Attendance Impact

Let's draw a name from a hat.

We'll pull for a non-championship contending ACC team that has hosted Notre Dame at some point over the last two seasons.

Then we'll look at that team's average attendance for all other games and then look at the Notre Dame contest.

OK, I drew an entirely random team, and wouldn't you know it, I somehow got Pittsburgh!

Now that's a program that prides itself on a rich history (although it hasn't won a meaningful bowl game since Ronald Reagan's first term as President), but is rather middle-of-the-pack when it comes to the ACC.

Pittsburgh has gone a combined 15-11 over the last two seasons. There's no shame in that, but also nothing overly noteworthy, either.

In that time, Pittsburgh has hosted 14 total games at Acrisure Stadium. 13 of those games have combined to have a total attendance of 667,056, or an average of 51,312.

For comparison, the Notre Dame game in 2025 drew a crowd of 68,400, the most of any Pittsburgh home game the last two years.

That includes home games against the likes of traditional ACC powerhouses Clemson and Miami, too.

I'm sure the Pittsburgh ticket office just hates having to answer for selling over 17,000 more tickets than normal because Notre Dame is in town.

Nick Shepkowski's Quick Takeaway

It's amazing how little of this was said a decade or so ago when Notre Dame was doing well against ACC foes, but not seriously challenging for national championships.

Now, Notre Dame is in that small group of favorites to win it all entering 2026 and those who have a problem with the Irish are venting it in irrational ways.

Instead of making some big to-do about what Notre Dame does, just come out and say you don't like Notre Dame instead of making some flawed case against its ACC deal.

The ACC clearly gets a lot from Notre Dame playing five games against it each season, whether it wants to admit that or not.

And Notre Dame gets to stay independent, get five games against what are technically considered Power Four programs, and everyone is happy, regardless of what they actually say.

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