Notre Dame despondent after being left out of College Football Playoff — ‘Overwhelming shock and sadness’

The College Football Playoff selection committee on Sunday left Notre Dame out of the 12-team field. And the Irish are not happy about it.

“My feelings and the feelings here are just shock and, really, an absolute sense of sadness for our student-athletes,” Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua told Yahoo Sports about an hour after the rankings reveal on Sunday. “Overwhelming shock and sadness. Like a collective feeling that we were all just punched in the stomach.”

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During the interview, Bevacqua called for an end to the CFP’s weekly ranking shows, describing them as a “farce” and saying that they provided “false” hope to Irish administrators, fans, coach Marcus Freeman and staff and, most notably, the players.

“There is no explanation that could possibly be given to explain the outcome,” Bevacqua said. “As I said to Marcus, one thing is for sure: Any rankings or show prior to this last one is an absolute joke and a waste of time. Why put these young student-athletes through these false emotions just to pull the rug out from underneath them having not played a game in two weeks and then a group of people in a room shatter their dreams without explanation?

“We feel like the playoff was stolen from our student-athletes.”

The first team out of the field in the committee’s rankings, No. 11 Notre Dame slipped one spot from last week’s rankings and No. 10 Miami rose two spots despite neither team playing a game this week. The Hurricanes, for the last month behind the Irish in the rankings, leaped BYU and Notre Dame to move into the field as the final at-large selection.

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In explaining the decision, CFP selection committee chair Hunter Yurachek said the committee dropped BYU behind Miami after the Cougars lost in the Big 12 championship game, thus putting the Hurricanes side-by-side with the Irish.

“We had that side-by-side comparison and you look at those two teams on paper and they are almost equal,” Yurachek said. “The one metric we had to fall back on was head-to-head.”

Miami beat Notre Dame, 27-24, in the season opener at Hard Rock Stadium in a game that Yurachek encouraged selection committee members to rewatch before Sunday’s meeting.

While those at Notre Dame understand the result of that game as a factor, the committee’s rankings over the last five weeks didn’t necessarily show its importance in its poll. In fact, during the committee’s very first rankings show six weeks ago — there are five weekly rankings shows before the final — the then-No. 10 Irish were eight spots in front of Miami.

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“If the rankings shows are legitimate, there is no logical explanation of what happened to us,” Bevacqua said. “Have one ranking show at the end, like Sunday. What’s the point of doing anything prior to that?”

In a story at Yahoo Sports in the past, commissioners have suggested making adjustments to the rankings process, including former Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, who said, “My personal opinion is we come out with rankings too early. Doing it every week is hard on the chair and the committee. Two polls, one midseason and one at the end, would be better. But ESPN would flip out.”

Under the new CFP television contract agreed to last spring, ESPN pays the conferences more than $1 billion annually for the right to the playoff. That includes six rankings shows in which the latest rankings are revealed, followed by a news conference with the chair.

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On Sunday, Notre Dame staff, players and some administrators were watching the show together with the expectation that the Irish would be seeded No. 9 or No. 10. The only “apprehension,” Bevacqua said, was their seed line.

After the reveal, Freeman addressed the team.

“Marcus said it perfectly: Usually there are reasons and answers and explanations, but we don’t have one for you with this,” Bevacqua says. “This is shocking and upsetting. An utter disbelief and sadness from our student-athletes, who were led to believe since the CFP rankings started of what they needed to do and did everything they were asked to do.”

Each week for the last six weeks, representatives from each conference and independents receive time in front of selection committee members. Notre Dame deputy athletic director Ron Powlus made the school’s presentation on Thursday.

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“The feedback we got in the last presentation Thursday was that it was the best presentation that they’ve received in the two years of the expanded playoff,” Bevacqua said.

Notre Dame’s place in the CFP is an interesting one.

The university is just one of two in the FBS — UConn is the other — not to be members of a conference. The Irish are the only school to have a representative on the 11-person CFP governing board made up of a commissioner from each of the 10 FBS conferences.

As it turns out, former ND athletic director Jack Swarbrick was one of the architects of the expanded 12-team format in which Notre Dame’s only path is to get one of the seven at-large selections.

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Many stakeholders across college sports — perhaps even some in the CFP selection committee room — have expressed public and private belief that the Irish should join a league.

On Sunday, Bevacqua strongly pushed back against that notion. Notre Dame is one of the country’s most valuable brands, holds a lucrative independent television contract with NBC and has one of the richest apparel deals with Under Armour.

“We love being independent in football. It’s part of our DNA,” Bevacqua said. “We have zero intention of changing that. It’s part of who Notre Dame is. Quite frankly, this further cements our independence. We are out there fighting for ourselves. That’s something we accept.”

In an interesting wrinkle, as part of a memorandum of understanding signed by CFP officials last spring, Notre Dame will be assured of making the playoff if it is ranked in the top 12 starting next year, Bevacqua tells Yahoo Sports. For instance, if this year’s circumstances unfold next year, the final at-large team (Miami) would have gotten automatically bumped from the field for No. 11 Notre Dame.

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If the playoff is expanded to 14 teams and there are more at-large berths added to the field (from seven to nine), Notre Dame is guaranteed into the field if it is ranked No. 13 or better, according to the MOU.

Meanwhile, Bevacqua and Freeman are focused now on “consoling” frustrated and saddened players.

“They are young kids. They devote so much time and effort to this,” he said. “In a moment, it’s all taken away from them. We’ll process this and move forward.”