Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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4 FEBRUARY 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED I n a recent piece I compiled for Blue & Gold Illustrated in anticipation of the Fighting Irish making the Col- lege Football Playoff, I confidently pro- claimed that Notre Dame's cozy inde- pendence brought a playoff inclusion advantage that no other program in the country enjoys. My premise was that through favor- able self-scheduling, coupled with no stress of playing in a high-risk, low- reward conference championship game, the Irish would reach 10 regular-season wins most every year and be in solid selection standing while schools from the Big Ten, Big 12, ACC and SEC were often still cannibalizing one another in league title games the first weekend of each December. Well, so much for that theory after Notre Dame won 10 games but still sur- prisingly became the first team left out of the 12-team playoff field after all of us were convinced it was comfortably in. Much of Notre Dame Nation's frustra- tion — and the very public outcry from first-year Irish director of athletics Pete Bevacqua — wasn't necessarily born out of the Irish not making the CFP. Their disappointment was more about how Notre Dame's surprising exclusion came after it was included in each of the first five playoff rankings, then comfort- ably won its final four games by an aver- age of 38.3 points, and were still kept out of the sixth and final playoff ranking, the only one that mattered. Conspiracy theories ran wild that the selection committee targeted in- dependent Notre Dame (10-2) when it rewarded three-loss Alabama (10-3) with one of the final at-large berths, even after the Crimson Tide was domi- nated and beaten 28-7 by Georgia in the SEC title game one day before bids were handed out. "Our heads were spinning," Bevacqua said. "Where's the logic? Where's the rationale? Why were we kind of being punished?" So, what can we take away from Notre Dame's snub? Did the committee intentionally "pun- ish" the Irish because of a growing per- ception that independence provides this program a different set of criteria and an unfair selection advantage compared to conference members? Was this playoff exclusion a warning shot for Notre Dame to join a conference or be judged harsher in the selection room compared to league members moving forward? And finally, does Bevacqua command the same respect and attention that pre- vious Notre Dame director of athlet- ics Jack Swarbrick did when important playoff decisions were being made? Swarbrick was the master of getting his football program everything it wanted, and then some. These are all questions that will never get a clear answer but could still shape Notre Dame's independent status and playoff fortunes for years to come. As my colleague Eric Hansen per- fectly points out, three pillars support Notre Dame's football independence: 1) Access to a national championship. 2) Protecting a media rights deal that keeps its program on par financially with the Big Ten and the SEC. 3) Having a healthy place to keep its basketball and Olympic sports programs. And at least for now, Notre Dame re- mains in a good place with all three. That said, it's worth recognizing that the CFP selection snub last month could foreshadow some uncertainty as to how sturdy the first of those three pillars is. And how a very public rift between Bevacqua and the ACC last month could chisel away at Pillar 3 after the league aggressively lobbied for member Miami to make the football playoff ahead of Notre Dame. "I understand the ACC has to stand up for their teams in football," Bevacqua said of the league that houses 24 of his Fighting Irish athletic programs, exclud- ing football. "We just think there's better ways to do it, and it has created damage." It's no secret that conference coaches and administrators around the country are becoming increasingly irritated and vocal during this expanded playoff era in their push to force Notre Dame into a conference. Most recently, before leading Texas Tech into the playoffs, Red Raiders head coach Joey McGuire suggested that Notre Dame was good enough to be a playoff team this year and prob- ably would've been if it was a confer- ence member. "I don't want to make Notre Dame mad," he said, "but be in a conference, and you're in the playoffs." And perhaps the playoff committee members are taking notice. Trying to suggest solutions to keep Notre Dame from getting snubbed again and protecting independence is difficult because beyond conspiracy theories and a ticked off athletics director, there's no clear evidence that the university suffered any selection bias in a subjective system. Just, "overwhelming shock and sad- ness," Bevacqua offered. Notre Dame will never join a league by its own free will. But if a united push among the other FBS schools takes hold, then perhaps this year's playoff snub becomes the first domino to Notre Dame losing one of its pillars of independence, and be- coming an all-in conference member, sooner rather than later. ✦ A united push among the other FBS schools could possibly force Notre Dame and director of athletics Pete Bevacqua to give up independence and join a conference full-time soon for financial, CFP and scheduling stability. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com. UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE How A Playoff Snub Might Drive Conference Membership