Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM FEBRUARY 2026 43 inexplicably dropped behind both Miami and Alabama, the latter after a horrible four-game stretch which included get- ting embarrassed in the SEC title game. Alabama became the only loser of a con- ference championship game in the CFP era not to fall in the rankings. Incoherent. Feckless. Irresponsible. In- competent. Corrupt. Those were just some of the printable terms used to describe the committee. Notre Dame, it turns out, had simply been used as a plot device for a real- ity TV show — the weekly CFP rankings. The tide, so to speak, had turned in mid-November when Baylor athletic director Mack Rhodes turned over lead- ership of the CFP selection committee to Arkansas AD Hunter Yurachek, and the SEC partisan came through grandly, getting five of his conference's teams among the 12 spots. Yurachek was so embittered by his school's 56-13 loss to Notre Dame in September that he fired his coach, and now he had his revenge. Of course, at 11-1 Notre Dame wouldn't have been "on the bubble," so we can't forget the outright robbery of the Texas A&M game by SEC officials. An atro- cious targeting call removing Notre Dame's best defender, followed by the worst-ever non-call of holding (tackling, actually) on the game-winning play gave the Aggies their one-point victory. The ESPN empire had its thumb on the scale the whole time. The constant drumbeat from every single ESPN broad- caster as to why Miami, despite losses to unranked Louisville and SMU, deserved to be ahead of Notre Dame was deafen- ing. It felt like propaganda of the greatest magnitude, repeated ad nauseum. Notre Dame's reaction, to skip a bowl which would pour millions into ESPN's coffers, was met with wide support among the school's followers. While the yappers in sports media offer the laziest take of the day — demanding the Irish bend the knee and join a confer- ence in football, minus a scintilla of un- derstanding of the history of the school, its mission or its tradition. The Notre Dame family is doing what it has always done in challenging times — close ranks and move forward. We know that Marcus Freeman and his team will "choose hard" and perform admira- bly. Let's join them in enjoying the living history they provide us today. ✦ Jim Lefebvre is an award-winning Notre Dame author and leads the Knute Rockne Memorial Society. He can be reached at: jim@ndfootballhistory.com Head coach Marcus Freeman's mantra of "Choose Hard" is something the Notre Dame family has always done during challenging times. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER Join the Knute Rockne Memorial Society and Patrick Steenberge's Global Football for a once-on-a-lifetime trip to the Land of Rockne — Norway. We'll be enjoying fresh air, forests, fjords…and football! With special events in Rockne's hometown of Voss honoring the legendary coach. A tram ride in the mountains. A cruise through the fjords. And a football game between a select U.S. team vs. Norway. June 21 - 29, 2026 For complete details, please visit: rocknesociety.org/norway