Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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6 JANUARY 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED NCAA BIAS & PREJUDICE Why hide our true feelings? Why be diplomatic about it? The NCAA has shown bias and prejudice to leave Notre Dame out of the College Football Play- off. It's Notre Dame versus the world! Why not call for a worldwide movement to boycott, not watch, and not tune in to any of the upcoming CFP football games? The NCAA has shown its contempt and corruption. … You know why this was done. The NCAA has chosen to use ma- fioso tactics to force Notre Dame to join a conference. Our independence was pun- ished today. Why stay polite and quiet about it? It's time to "call out" the NCAA and the rest of college football. We're on an island. Let's build our own boat. Go Irish! Dirk Pielech DIATRIBE I don't blame the committee, al- though I'm extremely disappointed for them leaving Notre Dame out! I blame Marcus Freeman and his staff because they had about seven months to put to- gether a very good competitive team and they failed miserably! I don't want to hear about the new coordinators or the QB situation be- cause there isn't any excuse for the poor tackling and the bad blocking that I watched in the first game. I have said this many times, the two most essen- tial elements of football are those two aforementioned components. Needless to say they were both missing! Personally I believe that all the haters are celebrating the fact that Notre Dame has been left out! They might even make it a national holiday. The reason I say this is because I think that every coach and every college is jealous of the position that Notre Dame commands because they don't have the drawing power that Notre Dame has! Lastly the committee doesn't penal- ize the loser of the playoff game! An example of this is Alabama; they were awful in the SEC title game and they were rewarded for losing! The SEC is the darling of this playoff system. I have news for the committee: the SEC has good teams and bad teams just like the Big Ten and any other conference; the problem is the sports writers, most of them don't know if the football has air in it or if it is stuffed with leaves and they all are in love with the SEC! So they rank them in the beginning of the season! I am opposed to that as well; the rankings shouldn't come out until after the third or fourth game. You have a clearer picture as to who are the better teams not who the sports writers tell you. Where is their gravitas for making the selections? Thank you for reading my DIATRIBE! Go Irish! Ray Ciarleglio Mr. Pielech and Mr. Ciarleglio, we feel your pain. The way things went down was extremely deflating. It certainly felt like there was some SEC bias, from Ole Miss staying locked in at No. 6 despite losing its head coach Lane Kiffin to LSU, to Okla- homa being solidly in the field despite a résumé that didn't necessarily compare fa- vorably to either Notre Dame or Miami, to how Alabama was handled. The Crimson Tide went 2-2 in its final four games, with its wins coming against FCS foe Eastern Illinois and rival Auburn, and losses to Oklahoma (at home) and Georgia. That the committee was "impressed" so much by a seven-point win at 5-7 Auburn, enough so that it moved them ahead of the Irish, is baffling. So was the fact that the committee didn't drop Alabama even one spot after it lost to Georgia by three touchdowns (28-7) in the SEC title game. Every other conference title game loser this year dropped at least one spot in the rankings, but the Tide — who, by the way, also lost to a 5-7 Florida State team by two touchdowns to open the season — stayed locked in at No. 9. And, Mr. Ciarleglio, you are not wrong that the bottom line is that if the Irish had taken care of business and beaten either Miami or Texas A&M, we'd be having a much different discussion right now. The Irish didn't play well in either of those games, but still had a chance to win both. The Irish were tied with the Hurricanes late before surrendering a game-winning field goal with a minute to go. And, in the A&M game, a botched extra point and a missed holding call hurt, but not as much as the defense's failure to get a big stop when it mattered most in the final seconds. 10-2 VICTIMS As an off-and-on subscriber of Blue & Gold Illustrated since 1989 and a lifelong fan, this letter is painful to write. To think that a 10-2 Irish team would quit because things didn't go their way is disgusting. Whether it was the school, athletics di- rector, coaches or players it does not mat- ter, you all should be embarrassed. This "snub" as it is called, should have been used for motivation. Notre Dame, the home of Rudy of all people, quit on of all days, Pearl Harbor Day. There is more FAN FORUM BE HEARD! Send your letters to: steve.downey@on3.com or mail to: Blue & Gold Illustrated, P. O. Box 2331, Durham, NC 27702 The CFP selection committee's handling of Alabama — which went 2-2 down the stretch and lost by three touchdowns in the SEC title game — proved costly for Notre Dame's chances of being part of this year's 12-team playoff field. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL