Historic college football program says conference was working against them

A one-time College Football Playoff contender believes the conference they are associated with was working against them at a critical time.

A blue blood college football program believes the conference they are associated with was working against them at a critical time. | USA Today Sports | Imagn

Notre Dame has had quite an eventful few days after being snubbed from the College Football Playoff at the last moment, declining to play in any bowl game as a response, and now leadership at the school is taking aim at the conference it has a relationship with.

The reason? Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua believes the ACC targeted his school first in the time leading up to the final playoff selection.

ACC targeted us, Notre Dame says

“We were definitely being targeted,” Bevacqua told reporters.

“For better and for worse, we have a different relationship with the ACC than any other team in college football, other than the teams in the ACC.”

A controversial decision, or was it?

There was no secret that the final place in the College Football Playoff was going to be down to either Miami or Notre Dame, with the Irish ranked ahead of the Hurricanes in the selectors’ own polls right up until Selection Day, when they were swapped.

And while most observers outside South Bend thought the committee was ultimately right in choosing Miami, given its head-to-head win over the Irish, their decision to change the two teams only at the last moment was met with some criticism.

Working against the Irish?

During that process, Bevacqua believes the ACC was playing favorites, hyping up Miami over the Fighting Irish through their various social media accounts in an attempt to sway opinion before the selection process went final.

“We’re in the ACC for 24 sports. We have a scheduling agreement with the ACC and, again, the ACC does wonderful things for Notre Dame,” he said. 

“We bring tremendous football value to the ACC, and we didn’t understand why you’d go out of your way to try and damage us in the process.”

Playoff expansion to come?

By being left out of the College Football Playoff, decision makers at Notre Dame naturally find expanding the format a seductive possibility.

“[The conference commissioners] all know how I feel about the format,” Bevacqua said.

“Four teams, 12 teams, 16 teams, 1,000 teams. It should be 16 teams in my opinion, with five automatic qualifiers and 11 at-large.”

By having a larger field, the playoff selectors would not have had to decide between Notre Dame and Miami, and could have also included other teams also on the bubble.

“This year, 16 would have been perfect. Notre Dame, Texas, Vanderbilt, and whoever else is in there,” he said.

“Year by year, you’re never going to have the same data points each year. It’s never going to work out perfectly, whether you have four, 12, 16.

“What I like about 16 is that it does create for more opportunity and it creates more narratives around schools, and yet preserves the integrity and importance of the regular season.”

That’s a question for another day. Right now, the College Football Playoff is 12 teams, and Notre Dame isn’t among them.