Can OU football win a rematch with Alabama in the first round of the College Football Playoff?
In the latest edition of the SoonersXtra podcast, OU beat writer Colton Saleh and columnist Joe Moussatto react to the announcement that the Sooners will host Alabama in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
Notre Dame’s elimination from the College Football Playoff meant the end of the season for coach Marcus Freeman’s team, but it also marked the beginning of a war of words.
Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua said on “The Dan Patrick Show” less than 24 hours after Monday that the Fighting Irish’s name was not revealed for the 12-team playoff spot. , he slammed the ACC after the conference publicly lobbied the Fighting Irish for Miami to make the playoffs, saying the league that houses most of the school’s non-football sports had “permanently damaged the relationship” between the two parties. Irish.
Bevacqua’s comments received widespread criticism, including from one of his fellow high-ranking figures in college athletics.
In a sit-down interview at the Sports Business Journal’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum in Las Vegas, Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark blasted Bevacqua’s criticism of the ACC, calling Bevacqua’s comments “terrible.”
“I don’t like Notre Dame’s reaction,” Yormark said. “I think Pete’s actions were terrible. Going after (ACC commissioner) Jim Phillips when he saved Notre Dame during the coronavirus pandemic was terrible.”
Although Notre Dame is independent in football, 24 of the university’s athletic programs are members of the ACC. Additionally, the school has had a football scheduling agreement with the ACC since 2014, requiring the Fighting Irish to play ACC programs an average of five times per year during the contract period. In 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ACC allowed Notre Dame to play an 11-game schedule that season against 10 ACC teams and qualify for the league championship game. Off the back of the ACC’s busy schedule, the Fighting Irish made it to the ACC Championship Game, where they lost to Clemson and were sent to the then-four-team College Football Playoff.
There was a debate last week about which combination of Notre Dame, Miami and Alabama would win the final two at-large spots in the playoffs, and the ACC campaigned in favor of Miami, the only of the three teams in the conference’s football membership.
On Nov. 10, the league’s official X (formerly Twitter) account posted a graphic comparing the Hurricanes’ and Fighting Irish’s respective resumes, highlighting Miami’s head-to-head win over Notre Dame and the number of wins against top-25 opponents. The ACC Network aired the Hurricanes’ 27-24 Week 1 win over the Fighting Irish more than a dozen times last week in the days leading up to the announcement of the final playoff spot. Miami ultimately clinched the final at-large spot after falling behind Notre Dame in previous weekly rankings releases.
These actions irritated Bevacqua. Bevacqua has expressed displeasure with the conference not including his school’s football program.
“I understand that they have to stand up for their team in football,” Bevacqua said on Tuesday, Dec. 9. “We just think there’s another way, and that’s taking its toll. I’m not going to shy away from that, and that’s not what I’m talking about. People who are much bigger than me at this university feel the same way.”
“When it comes to football, we have a responsibility to support and advocate for all 17 member institutions that play football, and we support the conference’s efforts to do just that in preparation for Sunday’s College Football Playoff Committee selections,” ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said in a statement Monday in response to Bevacqua’s comments.
While Notre Dame’s coaches and players may have understandably felt blindsided by the playoff selection committee’s final rankings, Yormark believes the hints for Miami to leapfrog the Fighting Irish were clear from the start. And to him, that makes Bevacqua’s actions even more unacceptable.
“(Playoff selection committee chairman) Hunter (Yurachek) was very transparent about the head-to-head competition being going to be a factor as Notre Dame and Miami get closer,” Yormark said. “BYU lost. They were close and head-to-head made the difference in that decision. I think his approach is completely over the top. If he was in the room, I would tell him the same thing.”
