Paul Finebaum says historic college football program has ‘lost all credibility’

SEC Nation's Paul Finebaum | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

Following the release of the 2025 College Football Playoff bracket along with the end of the sport's regular season, it's now the month for debate. In the aftermath of a more controversial CFP field than the first 12-team version a year ago, athletic directors, head coaches, conference commissioners and Paul Finebaum are all lobbing grenades at one another.

The drama has focused in South Bend ever since the relase of Sunday's Playoff bracket, which had Miami, not Notre Dame, sneaking in as the final at-large bid. Of course, the Hurricanes ultimately made the last-second leapfrog of ND thanks to a second bad BYU loss to Texas Tech in the Big 12 title game while Miami's head-to-head win was the final difference-maker.

To say the Irish are upset would be describing the situation with extreme grace. Shortly after the field was set, Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua dressed his wagon and made quite the media tour, stopping by Dan Patrick to take shots at the ACC while, overall, sharing several messages to the public about how poor and unfair he felt Notre Dame was treated during this year's selection process.

While watching some of those clips and discussing the Notre Dame fallout from their missed CFP bid on Wednesday morning's episode of First Take, ESPN college football analyst and SEC Network host Paul Finebaum dumped criticism on the way Bevacqua and Notre Dame have handled this saga.

“Pete Bevacqua has said a lot of things; he hasn’t backed up anything," Finebaum said. "I mean, he just threw a bunch of rocks at the street. But he didn’t touch anything. If he wanted to make a statement, say, ‘Hey, we’re getting out of the ACC, whatever it costs, whatever the legalities.’ But he didn’t do that. He just made a bunch of empty threats."

Pete Bevacqua, athletic director for college football contender Notre Dame | MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Finebaum makes the point that if Bevacqua is going to attack the ACC and the CFP committee and its chair, who's an SEC athletic director — all these various important parties in college football — then he better have a reason. For now, though, he sees all this uproar from Bevacqua as pretty much shouting into the wind if it isn't followed up by any serious action.

"And I think, as a result, Notre Dame has lost all credibility in this matter," Finebaum added of the Irish. Sure, did Notre Dame have legit complaints about the whiplash nature of their ranking vs. Miami over the final weeks? Perhaps. But ultimately, the Fighting Irish lost to both of the CFP opponents who they played, and beat only one team in the final top-25 rankings.

As Finebaum and others would say, Notre Dame had their chances. A path to the national title game isn't some birthright. Even with an expanded field, the Irish should have to earn their way in if they aren't going to win a conference, and in 2025, they unfortunately came up just short.