Notre Dame has declined to participate in a bowl game after being left out of the College Football Playoff.
The team was passed over for the CFP in favor of Miami, a team that defeated the Irish during the season.
Let me see if I’ve got this straight. The team that gets more help, more deference from the College Football Playoff and the bowl system than any other, is taking its ball and going home.
Well, boo-freaking-hoo.
They’ll walk right out of the bowl system, and into the loving, waiting arms of self-pity. Which, of course, tracks.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
Notre Dame lost to Miami, and lost the CFP argument. Not only that, the Irish have beaten no team with a pulse, and had no argument that could stick.
No amount of whining and complaining is going to change it. Certainly not a statement released four hours after the CFP did the right thing by choosing the Canes over the Irish, one that humbly thanked friends, family and fans and declared the team was “hoping to bring the 12th national title to South Bend in 2026.”
How about finishing 2025 first?
How about toughen up, hop on a plane to beautiful Orlando and play a grinder of a bowl game against a tough, physical BYU team that — I know this is going to shock you — is also upset about not reaching the CFP.
To say nothing of the life-sized Pop-Tart that awaits the winner of the best non-CFP game of the postseason.
This Notre Dame move just smacks of elitism, of we’re better than you and your playoff and we’re going to prove it. Only there’s one teeny-weeny problem: The CFP does’t need Notre Dame.
The games will go on, a national champion will be crowned and another year will be added to the last time Notre Dame won it all. Which is 1988, in case you’re wondering.
Just how long ago was that? It was also the same year Indiana last beat Ohio State before Saturday night’s monumental moment in the Big Ten Championship game.
That game, that specific night in Indianapolis — merely 130 miles from South Bend — should be a defining statement for Notre Dame and any other blue-blood college football program of the past. The game has changed, drastically.
What was once elite, can easily no longer be. What was once the worst program in college football — with the right hire and whole lot of NIL cash — can be its best.
College football doesn’t need Notre Dame like it used to, doesn’t need the charm and glory and pageantry of the Four Horsemen and Touchdown Jesus and those magnificent gold helmets. Get over yourself, Irish — it’s a new world.
The quicker Notre Dame figures it out, the quicker it realizes every game, every moment on the field, is another chance to convince high school and transfer portal players to come play in the freezing Midwest and try to win a national title for the first time in nearly 40 years.
Young men aren’t interested in taking a stand against anything. They’re invested in making money by playing football, and if you’re really fortunate, maybe somewhat interested in graduating from the same school.
Decades ago, there was an unwritten rule at Notre Dame that prevented the school from playing any bowl game outside the major bowls. But there was a dirty secret behind it.
It wasn’t that Notre Dame was standing on principle, and only wanted to extend a season for players if it meant a major bowl game. It’s because by playing in a bowl game, television-friendly Notre Dame was elevating the status of other schools.
Especially if the Irish lost.
But now there’s another not-so-secret reality for Notre Dame: BYU doesn’t need the Irish. Nor does any other program in college football.
Nor does the CFP or the bowl system or any blue-chip player. The ACC still does, but that’s why Notre Dame is in this mess in the first place.
The best part of the temper tantrum is Notre Dame has been revealed to be just another team, just another program trying to find its way in the ever-changing college football world.
One that isn’t waiting around for the Irish anymore.
