Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua is right. The College Football Playoff’s weekly rankings shows, reality television for ESPN since their 2014 inception, are misleading, counterproductive and unnecessary.
“The rankings can’t just be musical chairs at some fifth-grade birthday party,” Bevacqua said Monday on Dan Patrick’s radio show. “They have to mean something, and to me, what happened to us was alarming.”
You know what happened to Notre Dame. Judged among the top 10 by the playoff selection committee for each of the season’s first five shows, the Fighting Irish dropped to No. 11 in Sunday’s final rankings, excluding them from the bracket.
Where Bevacqua’s appearance with Patrick devolved into a tantrum from an entitled rich kid is when he faulted the ACC for its advocacy of Miami, the decades-long ACC member that jumped Notre Dame in the final rankings to earn the last at-large bid to the 12-team playoff.
Three reminders before detailing Bevacqua’s ACC broadside.
First, the Irish are staunch football independents and have housed 24 of their other sports in the ACC since 2013. They are contracted to play, on average, five football games each season against a rotation of ACC opponents.
Second, Miami and Notre Dame are 10-2, have similar metrics and collided in a season-opener that drew a massive TV audience of 10.8 million on ABC, the conference’s and Notre Dame’s most-watched game of 2025 — by far.
The Hurricanes won 27-24.
Third, the selection committee’s consensus regarding Notre Dame and Miami changed between the Dec. 2 and Dec. 7 rankings without either having played. Hence, Bevacqua’s frustration with the weekly rankings that prompt contorted and indecipherable logic from the panel’s chairman.
Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua, shown talking before last season’s College Football Playoff national championship game, which the Irish lost to Ohio State, was frustrated to see Notre Dame excluded from this year’s field. EDDIE PELLS/AP
Which brings us to Monday. Patrick asked excellent questions, so to be fair, let’s give Bevacqua his complete say.
Patrick: “What role did the ACC play in any of this, in your opinion?”
Bevacqua: “I would tell you, again, I have tremendous respect for Miami. Great team, great school. Their athletic director, Dan Radakovich, is a good friend. And all the teams in the ACC. Wonderful universities. We have no gripes about any of the schools in the ACC.
“But we were mystified by the actions of the conference to attack, really, their biggest business partner in football and a member of their conference in 24 of our other sports. And I would tell you, Dan, I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t say that they have certainly done permanent damage to the relationship between the conference and Notre Dame.”
Patrick: “What do you mean?”
Bevacqua: “Just we didn’t appreciate the fact that we were singled out repeatedly and compared to Miami. Not by Miami. Miami has every right to do that. But it raised a lot of eyebrows here that the conference was taking shots at us. That’s just not something we chose to do. We wouldn’t choose to do that in the future. People might disagree with us, but that’s just not something we would be comfortable with.
“And again, we have no problem with any of these teams. These are all great teams. You look at those teams. Miami. Like I said, great season. They beat us. You think about Alabama. Nobody’s had more success in college football over the last decade than Alabama.
“But Dan, you know, you follow this sport so closely. Everybody was saying we were one of the handful of teams that could win this whole thing. And now we have 0% chance. Even Nick Saban. Nobody knows more about college football, maybe in the history of the world, than Nick Saban, and he said it yesterday. Like, how is Notre Dame not in this? Everybody’s just kind of confused and perplexed. And we don’t have good answers for the kids on our team, our student-athletes.”
Patrick: “Are you going to re-evaluate your relationship with the ACC, the overall relationship?”
Bevacqua: “I would just say it’s been strained.”
Patrick: “Irreparable?”
Bevacqua: “Well, you never say irreparable, but it’s opened our eyes. It caught our attention, but we’ll move past this.”
So much to unpack, so little time.
Let’s start here: Bevacqua was “mystified” that the ACC, through its social accounts and Commissioner Jim Phillips’ media interviews, compared Miami to Notre Dame? Really?
One of these is not like the others… pic.twitter.com/vFNs5OyXUH
— ACC Football (@ACCFootball) December 7, 2025
What did Bevacqua expect? For the ACC, a conference whose undefeated champion, Florida State, was excluded from the four-team playoff in 2023, to have done otherwise would have been malpractice.
Moreover, of course the ACC compared Miami directly to Notre Dame, because the Irish were all that stood between the Hurricanes and the field, despite Miami’s season-opening victory.
“The University of Notre Dame is an incredibly valued member of the ACC,” Phillips, a former Notre Dame administrator, said in a statement provided to The Pilot, Daily Press and other outlets, “and there is tremendous respect and appreciation for the entire institution. With that said, when it comes to football, we have a responsibility to support and advocate for all 17 of our football-playing member institutions, and I stand behind our conference efforts to do just that leading up to the College Football Playoff committee selections on Sunday.
“At no time was it suggested by the ACC that Notre Dame was not a worthy candidate for inclusion in the field. We are thrilled for the University of Miami, while also understanding and appreciating the significant disappointment of the Notre Dame players, coaches and program.”
While acknowledging that Miami had every right to compare its credentials with Notre Dame’s, Bevacqua said that is something the Irish would never choose to do? Well, if that is indeed the case — call me skeptical — that’s probably because college football has been kissing Notre Dame’s ring for decades.
Who sits on the CFP’s Board of Managers? One president from every Bowl Subdivision conference — and the president of Notre Dame.
Who serves on the CFP’s Management Committee? The commissioners of each FBS conference — and Notre Dame’s athletic director.
Who comprised the subcommittee that crafted the 12-team playoff model that debuted last season? SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, then-Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, then-Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson — and then-Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick.
Notre Dame’s oversized influence is about to reach baffling new heights next season and beyond when, as first reported by Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger, the Irish will be guaranteed a playoff bid if they’re among the top 12 — even if some of the automatic-qualifying conference champions are ranked outside the top 12.
Translation: If, say, two AQs are ranked lower than No. 12, as they were this season and last, and the Irish are No. 12, two teams among the top 11 that otherwise would have earned at-large bids would be excluded from the playoff.
Why? Because CFP influencers, for reasons known only to them, feel obligated to enable Notre Dame.
Now, contrary to what many ACC fans contend, Notre Dame’s unique and partial membership in the conference is mutually beneficial.
The Irish drive ticket sales at ACC football stadiums that have attendance issues. Although limited, their football presence increases the value of the league’s television contract with ESPN, and their other top-shelf sports helped to make the ACC Network a reality.
But lest Bevacqua and Irish apologists forget, here’s what the ACC has provided Notre Dame.
Influence: The Irish have a voice in all conference matters, except those that affect only football. For example, when the Pac-12 splintered, Notre Dame lobbied aggressively for the ACC to invite academic heavyweights Stanford and Cal-Berkeley.
A Stanford law school graduate, Swarbrick was the loudest of those Notre Dame voices, and after contentious debate, ACC members, the Irish included, welcomed Stanford and Cal, along with SMU.
Money: According to the ACC’s annual tax filings — 2023-24’s is the most recent available — Notre Dame has received $141.8 million in conference revenue since joining.
Platforms: ACC competition in sports such as soccer, lacrosse and basketball has been a boon to Notre Dame. Indeed, the 2015 ACC Tournament is a seminal moment in Irish men’s basketball lore — they defeated ACC icons Duke and North Carolina in the semifinals and final, respectively. In Greensboro, no less.
Bowl access: When Notre Dame doesn’t make the playoff, it becomes part of the ACC’s bowl pool, and because of its powerful brand knocks some of the league’s actual members down in the bowl pecking order.
A lifeline: During the 2020 pandemic football season, conferences such as the Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12 played only league games, leaving Notre Dame without enough quality opponents to even hope for playoff qualification. Enter the ACC.
The ACC welcomed the Irish as a one-year football rental, providing them a full conference schedule and a full share of league TV revenue. Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly was the ACC Coach of the Year and Irish linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah was the Defensive Player of the Year as Notre Dame reached the league championship game and qualified for the four-team CFP.
Perhaps that history is lost on Mr. Bevacqua.
David Teel, david.teel@virginiamedia.com
