Irish say no bowl after CFP snub, rankings 'farce'

Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua told ESPN that the program is in utter disbelief and shock after being left out of the 12-team College Football Playoff on Sunday.

As a result, the Fighting Irish said the team has made the decision to not participate in a bowl game this season.

"As a team, we've decided to withdraw our name from consideration for a bowl game following the 2025 season," said a statement credited to the 2025 Notre Dame Football Team. "We appreciate all the support from our families and fans, and we're hoping to bring the 12th national title to South Bend in 2026."

The Irish had been ranked in the top 10 of every CFP rankings release until Sunday, when they were placed No. 11 and were the first team out. Miami, which beat Notre Dame in Week 1, moved ahead of the Irish in the final rankings to take the final at-large berth.

Bevacqua expressed frustration with the entire process, telling ESPN's Jen Lada that the team felt as if it had the rug pulled out from under them, in part because they believed they were well situated to make the field because of where it had been previously ranked.

In the first CFP rankings release on Nov. 4, Notre Dame was No. 10 and Miami was No. 18. The Irish moved up to No. 9 for a few weeks before dropping back to No. 10 last week. Miami had slowly moved up the rankings and was No. 12 last week.

Bevacqua told ESPN that any rankings ahead of the final ones are a "farce and total waste of time."

Adding to the confusion for Notre Dame was that neither they nor Miami played this weekend.

CFP selection committee chair Hunter Yurachek said Miami's 27-24 head-to-head victory against Notre Dame on Aug. 31 wasn't a deciding factor until the Hurricanes jumped BYU in the CFP rankings and were evaluated side-by-side with the Irish. Yurachek also said he encouraged committee members on Saturday night to go back and watch the Notre Dame-Miami game from Labor Day weekend.

"Once we moved Miami ahead of BYU, then we had that side-by-side comparison that everybody had been hungering for," Yurachek said. "You look at those two teams on paper, and they are almost equal in their schedule strength, their common opponents, the results against common opponents.

"But the one metric we had to fall back on, again, was the head to head."

Notre Dame and Miami finished with the same 10-2 records and had similar results against common opponents.

As part of a memorandum of understanding signed last year that guarantees that the field will have at least 12 teams in 2026 and beyond, Notre Dame would be guaranteed a spot if it finishes in the top 12 starting next year.

By not making it this year, Notre Dame lost out on a $4 million payday for just making the field. All 12 schools that make the CFP receive that amount, but the difference is that the Fighting Irish, as an independent, doesn't have to split it with conference members.

In addition, under a deal agreed to in March, there will be guaranteed CFP spots for the conference champions from the ACC, Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 and the highest-ranked Group of 5 champion, sources told ESPN. If that had been in place for this season, ACC champion Duke would have made the field and Sun Belt champ James Madison, a second Group of 5 representative, would have been left out.

Alabama pushed past Notre Dame last week to No. 9 and did not drop after losing 28-7 in the the SEC championship game to Georgia, staying in the 12-team field.

"Their strength of schedule was the highest in the top 11, and felt like in spite of their performance yesterday in the conference championship, they deserve to stay within that nine spot," Yurachek said.

ESPN's Heather Dinich contributed to this report.