Notre Dame Made the Right Move Opting Out of Lowly Bowl Game

Notre Dame did the right thing in not accepting an invitation to the Pop-Tarts Bowl

Pete Bevacqua, athletic director for the University of Notre Dame, announces Pat Garrity as the new men's and women's basketball general manager, during a press conference at Notre Dame Stadium on Thursday, May 22, 2025, in South Bend. | MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Notre Dame's 2025 season has officially come to an end.

The Fighting Irish announced on Sunday afternoon that they will not participate in a bowl game. Instead, 2025 comes to an end is sudden fashion, with Notre Dame finishing the year 10-2, in the midst of a 10-game winning streak.

Much of the reaction to Notre Dame's decision to decline a bowl invitation is calling the Irish a sore loser, but it couldn't be further from the truth.

Notre Dame was exactly right in its decision to decline any bowl invitation, regardless of how petty it may look in the moment.

Notre Dame's Middle Finger to ESPN

pic.twitter.com/TyzavvzpC1

— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) December 7, 2025

The thing many seem to be getting wrong is that this isn't only about Notre Dame not wanting to play in a lesser bowl game. It's more about Notre Dame not wanting to help who airs that said bowl game.

ESPN just spent the last month lighting Notre Dame ablaze every opportunity it had and you can't help but wonder if its ties to both the SEC and College Football Playoff played a role in who ultimately made the field.

Couple in Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua being a longtime television executive at NBC, and of course Notre Dame isn't about to do anything to help ESPN.

Oh No, Not the Pop-Tarts Bowl!

Almost certainly, had Notre Dame accepted a bowl invitation, it would have come from the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando. As much as some social media tough guys will tell you that game matters, the fact of the matter is, it does not.

The Pop-Tarts Bowl is more about the mascot being eaten by the winning team than it is about anything that happens on the field. It's a Savannah Bananas game disguised as a college football bowl game.

If we're being honest, that mascot bit was funny the first time, but had already jumped the shark its second time around.

Dec 28, 2024; Orlando, FL, USA; Iowa State Cyclones teammates celebrate with the Hot Fudge Sundae Pop-Tart mascot after defeating the Miami Hurricanes at Camping World Stadium. | Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images

Don't get it confused: This isn't like Georgia getting shafted from the College Football Playoff in 2023 and then going to the Orange Bowl and setting the Florida State program back years.

That's the Orange Bowl when the College Football Playoff was just four teams. This is the Pop-Tarts Bowl, a mockery of a football game that isn't presented with an ounce of seriousness.

Notre Dame was at worst one of the nation's five best teams and was left out of the College Football Playoff for an Alabama team that has looked at best like a good Big 12 team the last month, and you can't convince me that wasn't intentional.

I'm sorry if it comes across as Notre Dame being too good for such a game under these circumstances, but it only seems that way because its true.