Major college football program declines bowl game after College Football Playoff snub

Notre Dame finished the 2025 regular season 10-2, closing with 10 straight wins and dominant margins, notably a 34-24 victory vs. No. 20 USC, a commanding 37-15 win at No. 22 Pittsburgh, and a 70-7 rout of Syracuse.

Yet, despite boasting a top-5 scoring offense (42.0 PPG) and top-15 scoring defense (17.6 OPPG), the Irish finished just outside the expanded College Football Playoff field.

Instead, the committee placed Miami ahead of Notre Dame based on a Week-1 head-to-head result.

Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame’s head coach since December 2021, holds a career record at Notre Dame of 43-12 and had guided the program to the 2025 national title game the prior season.

After being left off the 12-team CFP field, the Irish announced that they have withdrawn their name from consideration for a bowl game.

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

The CFP committee’s final spot came down to extremely fine margins.

Miami’s season-opening 27–24 win over Notre Dame served as a decisive tiebreaker in the committee’s comparison of the two 10-2 teams; committee officials acknowledged head-to-head and the teams’ comparative resumes during deliberations.

That move, along with the committee’s wider use of comparative metrics and loss‑quality evaluations, sparked immediate reactions among fans and analysts.

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman. — Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman takes the field with his players before a NCAA football game against Syracuse at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend. | MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Contractually, conference members can be fined for refusing to participate in bowls. The Big 12, for example, recently fined Iowa State and Kansas State after they opted out amid coaching turnover.

However, Notre Dame is an FBS independent in football; it is not subject to a single-conference bowl-pool contract that would create the same mechanism for a league fine.

Historically, Notre Dame has previously declined bowls in unique circumstances without lasting institutional sanction.

Because the NCAA polices violations rather than voluntary postseason decisions, federal penalties aren’t the normal course.

However, while Notre Dame likely faces minimal formal discipline, the more immediate effects could be on reputation, revenue, and donor relations.

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