Notre Dame Has Learned A Valuable Lesson Through CFP Snub

It was a painful way to learn a life lesson, but the College Football Playoff committee slapped the Irish in the face with a hammer on Sunday. To try to take something positive out of this, what can Notre Dame learn from this?

Life comes at Notre Dame fast, and in the most painful way possible

Notre Dame started last Sunday morning with terrific odds to make the CFP field and the third-best title odds of any program in the country. In under two hours, this hope turned to despair as the Irish were left out of the CFP and the season was over.

Since then, the Irish have been ripped coast to coast from every corner of the internet. As if this wasn't painful enough for Irish nation, Marcus Freeman is currently the betting favorite to become the Giants' head coach. It's been a rough news cycle, to say the least.

The issue confronting Notre Dame now is how to move forward. What lessons can be learned from this experience that can help the program excel in the face of major headwinds?

The Golden Standard ☘️

Coach Marcus Freeman has been selected as a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award#GoIrish☘️ | @TheFWAA | @Marcus_Freeman1 pic.twitter.com/Ni1QjaheHW
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) December 9, 2025

Notre Dame now knows exactly what it's up against

Notre Dame has always been a target. That's what happens when you are different, when you are the outlier, when you forge your own path. As an independent, this has always been a part of the Notre Dame narrative. What the last handful of days have shown is the extent to which entities will go out of their way to take the Irish down. This is painful, but helpful.

Notre Dame can no longer play nice with the "powers that be". The ACC does not respect or value what the Irish bring to the table. The CFP committee is clearly biased to the SEC and ACC, their contractual television partners, and the national media is quick to roast Notre Dame whenever given the chance.

Notre Dame must change its posture when dealing with all of the aforementioned entities. None of them can be trusted or respected moving forward. The Irish must become more selfish and more protective of their brand, who they work with, and the parameters of that work.

It truly is Notre Dame vs the world now to a greater extent than ever before. Notre Dame must understand this and operate differently moving forward. Enough with the "good partner" talk. It's time for the Irish to be selfish out of existential necessity.

The Irish only have two options moving forward

The way I see it, Notre Dame has two paths here. One is to cave to all that has happened and to the current landscape of the sport and join a conference full-time. This is not a favored option by most in the Irish community, but is the easiest resolution to most of the issues Notre Dame has run into.

The second option is for Notre Dame to go scorched earth and double down on everything it is, has been, and wants to be.

This means there is no taking the foot off the gas in blowouts; this means Notre Dame refuses to allow the opposing team's referees to work in Notre Dame Stadium, this means no media access for TV networks outside of NBC, and this means the Irish refuse to play games when it best suits opponents.

Notre Dame has played nicely for decades and gotten nothing out of it. Its time to put Notre Dame's interests first and stop catering to everyone else, becoming a pawn in the larger conference-dominated landscape. These are tough times, and it'll take good, strong leadership to navigate the irish ship to more stable seas.