Notre Dame is not taking its perceived College Football Playoff snub lightly.
After announcing the Fighting Irish would opt out of a bowl on Sunday, Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua embarked on a media tour to voice the school’s concerns.
He took aim at the Atlantic Coast Conference, with which Notre Dame has a football scheduling agreement, during an appearance Monday on the Dan Patrick Show.
“We were mystified by the actions of the conference to attack their biggest business partner in football and a member of their conference in 24 of our other sports. I wouldn’t be honest with you if I didn’t say that they have done permanent damage to the relationship between the conference and Notre Dame,” Bevacqua said.
“We didn’t appreciate the fact that we were singled out repeatedly and compared to Miami, not by Miami, but it raised a lot of eyebrows here that the conference was taking shots at us. … People might disagree with us, but that’s just not something we’d be comfortable with.”
Notre Dame, which won its final 10 games after an 0-2 start that included a loss to Miami, was ahead of the Hurricanes throughout the College Football Playoff rankings until Miami jumped the Fighting Irish on Sunday to claim the final at-large bid.
The Irish joined the ACC in all sports aside from football and hockey in 2013 and agreed in 2014 to play five football games against ACC opponents each season to fill out their schedule.
The official ACC Football account on X posted a direct Miami-Notre Dame comparison graphic on Dec. 1 with the caption, “The best part about football? You get to settle it on the field.”
The ACC Network also re-broadcast Miami’s season-opening win over Notre Dame at least 13 times in the days leading up to the CFP field announcement.
The ACC would have been excluded from the field — and missed out on quite a bit of money — had Miami not made it due to five-loss Duke winning the conference championship.
