2025 College Football Playoffs

[Dale]

Being the history nerd I am, and in honor of our WWII veterans, would be great if this has a total opposite impact and turns into "a day that will live in infamy" (Had to with the anniversary of Pearl Harbor just yesterday)

Hopefully this just awakens a sleeping giant just like the Japanese did

Had a similar thought. The Axis of Mickey is going to regret it

They just created a million Irish Envys

 

[Pete]

I am starting to get pissed at the lack of bite coming from ND and its influence. Pete better be fire and brimstone at noon, or I will get even more pissed.

Everybody keeps saying that “the committee sits down and ranks from scratch every week” as the excuse to suddenly drop us.

But this makes no sense.

From that dumbass Yurachek’s own mouth, he claimed that last week the committee believed “ND is better than BYU, and BYU is better than Miami, so that’s why they were ranked that way.”

Ok, so then by EVERY LOGICAL DEFINITION OF THE UNIVERSE, that you learn in grade school, ND is better than Miami.

Is defies all logic known to man that you can suddenly swap them based on the same data, UNLESS the original point wasn’t ever true.

Additionally, last season the committee said “idle teams are done being compared, only the conference champ teams will be compared.”

But this year, last week, we were told this wasn’t true which telegraphed their move. This was clearly discussed in the committee meetings. They absolutely 100% discussed that a BYU loss would put Miami and ND head to head the following week when they jumped Bama and slotted BYU in between.

So what does this all mean?

The committee is NOT truly ranking teams anymore. Instead there is concrete proof that they are playing out narratives and engaging conspiracy rather than sitting down and ranking teams 1 thru 25.

NOBODY is talking about this, and it’s causing me to rage

Well, then, get ready to be even more pissed off. Highly doubtful Pete is going to come out swinging.

 

[Dale]

 

[Dale]

 

[sfk324]

Winners win.
Competitors compete.
Quitters quit.
Whiners whine.
Losers lose.

Hey look! A moron who thinks he's erudite. Here's some food for thought: being in a conference isn't a virtue, it's a sign of weakness and fear. It's simply a reflection of being a garbage program that can't hack it and has to rely on Mommy and Daddy to keep you afloat and protect you from th consequences of continued failure. Every single conference member realized they couldn't hack it on their own and quit trying. Yet that doesn't stop all you whiners from whining about ND not being in a conference. Why not compete to win on your own merits, instead of insulating yourselves from the consequences of repeated failure that you know will come?

 

[IrishSteelhead]

Once again, it’s not the why. It’s the how.

Hats to anyone brave enough to visit social media.

Gonna avoid it for quite some time and just look here for the takes that aren’t filled with venom to get clicks.

“I hate ND, let me spend the next 30 minutes using their name to increase engagement”


*I was watching a live podcast with these Miami shmucks a few weeks ago. Flat bill hats, covered in tattoos, giant jewelry, exaggerated accents. They were like a caricature if you asked a toddler to draw the typical Miami fan.

Anyhoo, there were like 600 listeners because all they were doing was shitting on ND.

I commented “talk about your own team for 5 consecutive minutes and see what happens”

They took the bait, and the viewers went down 90% about a minute in, because nobody gives a shit about Miami


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ozzman]

"Playing without the loves and prices"

jadarian gone

 

[RDU Irish]

I think I mentioned it in one of these threads that Notre Dame is now a very pissed off university with a very pissed off fan base with some very pissed off donors. $3 million is easily attainable with all the pissing of offs going on in South Bend right now. If I were Notre Dame I would be out spending everyone. 2026 should be the revenge tours of all revenge tours.

Considering schools are obligated to sell $3-$5M worth of tickets - reality of most bowls is teams lose money unless it is a bigger one like this. If you have ever seen secondary market on non-playoff bowls - it is a massive money loser to buy from the school rather than get better tickets in secondary market. Nothing more than suckering fans into over paying for an exhibition game where schools were traditionally happy to lose money in order to get 15 more practices in.

Practice anyway. WTF is the toothless NCAA going to do? Have seen this point all over - do whatever you want and F the cartel.

Maybe there is another thread but I am now curious on the money surrounding CFP. $4M seems way light on making it, I'm sure there is a massive bullshit travel budget on top of that. We had to have made more than $20M last year after expenses.

 

[ShamrockOnHelmet]

🤦🏻‍♂️. Pete is weak. We are in trouble, guys.

 

[FOTY977]

ND saves the ACC and College Football in general 5 years ago we get a massive “fuck you” as soon as it’s convenient.

Navy saves ND and we do right by them for nearly 100 years.

There is nothing to salvage or protect in regards to the networks or conferences. To bring up the quote from the Kiffin debacle “You can’t turn a Ho into a Housewife” and every single one of these turds is a cheap whore.

 

[pumpdog20]

I’m glad we chose to sit out the bowl game. Let the pundits knock is for it. Look what happened to FSU a few years ago after they felt screwed. We have more to lose than gain by playing in a bowl. I still can’t believe we were told the whole time we were the 8th best team and after winning our last 2 games by 63 and 29 we were finally told we weren’t good enough. Screw you ESPN for just using us for drama and a storyline.

This has me wondering... how much of FSU's collapse has to do with maybe the players didn't want to play and the coaches/admin made them. And now they've completely lost any semblance of culture in that locker room?

 

[2013Irish]

Bama legends Mark Ingram and Damien Harris saying ND should be in over Bama is Exhibit A for me. I respected the hell out of those guys as players because they were smart and played hard. That intelligence and realness carried over to their broadcasting careers.

I like Saban's film room, but Gameday is otherwise saccharine bullshit with blathering from a former punter with an 85 IQ peppered in. In light of that and the fact that other networks have allowed analysts to present differing viewpoints, I will be disregarding ESPN's analysis of the sport going forward, save for actual games.

 

[pumpdog20]

So we're not getting 'fire and brimstone' then.
No need to do a press conference if it's just going to be this message. We've heard it multiple times now. Is what it is.

 

[sfk324]

Big divorced dad JV linebackers coach energy.

He financed his water bed

 

[RDU Irish]

Untuck your dick Pete - that was you opening to lay waste to the SEC. BYU, Miami and ND over FOURTH AND FIFTH SEC TEAMS. WTF is up with a conference having four teams with one conference loss at season end? WTF is the point of a conference if you have a four way tie effectively at season end and you don't even put your two best in the CCG - just like the ACC leaving Miami out of the CCG which is the crux of this entire disaster anyway.

Not the time for equivocating - that is the pussy track that got us snubbed. Easy to fuck over the nice guy. Mock TF out of those bitches:

1) I see why the commissioner might not favor us since he had to go find a new coach before the sunset on our obliteration of his SEC SEC SEC powerhouse team. Why play FCS schools when you can play Arkansas.
2) FSU knows how we feel - SEC is a problem, even within the SEC. Look how annoyed they are at Vandy for finding their balls. Commish has Stockholm syndrome apparently.
3) I'm happy we could claim a title without risking injury today. Thank you for finally recognizing our 1993 title (SEC)SPN.
4) Lay the seeds of independence. FSU, Texas, Clemson, BYU, Vanderbilt, USC would be a great foundation for an Independent alliance.
5) Star Wars now CFB - everything Disney touches turns to crap.
6) Relegation system probably would take an act of Congress but everyone with half a brain knows it is the best answer for the sport. SEC would be so much better with Arkansas relegated down and Memphis up for example.

This response should have been an invite to independence and filleting of conference allegiances.

 

[irish2104]

Thought this was a good article.. hopefully true

Goodman: Notre Dame just declared war on college football

And the SEC is in the crosshairs.

www.al.com

 

[ShamrockOnHelmet]

so

Thought this was a good article.. hopefully true

Goodman: Notre Dame just declared war on college football

And the SEC is in the crosshairs.

www.al.com

As soon as it says “Alabama earned it way in and deserved its spot” I stopped reading.

They did not earn their way in. There do not deserve a spot. Everything after than can only be additional shit.

 

[sfk324]

We would've spent at least half of that 3 million in costs associated with travel and attendance to the game. My guess is we would've netted 1 million dollars. Maybe not even that.

If we would've went , there would've probably been some commentary reminding us that ND doesn't have to share bowl payments with conference members. Evil Evil Notre Dame.

The other part of this is that, under the original agreement, ND has to split any bowl revenue with the ACC that is not from the CFP or the Orange Bowl in exchange for access to the ACC-tied bowl games. That was the deal when the CFP was just 4 teams and the NY6 still existed, so I'm not sure if that's changed. But I would guess it has not simply because ND would have been foolish to reopen that contract item when the number of bowl games which ND would not have to share with the ACC would have increased from 4 (3 CFP plus the OB, Max of 2 games in a year) to 11 CFP games (Max of 4 games in a year) without obtaining a substantial concession in return.

So ND would not have received that full $3M payout -- the ACC would have benefitted from their treachery.

 

[RDU Irish]

ND PR department sucks. J Love should have been pre-season Heisman hyped. NBC should slobber on ND more than the opponent with Brady Quinn and Ryan Harris unfiltered. We had Doug F-ing Flutie for years - WTF are we even doing with our own TV deal if we aren't levering it?

Now Soft Peter Bevacqua -'erm ah - process was unclear, ah derp, we think everyone is super nice and special too. Uhm ah - maybe we can just hug it out and communicate better next time someone is planning on ..." FUCKING ME IN THE ASS? Weaksauce - ACC network playing our worst game 24/7 and we are having afternoon tea laying more praise on the other teams than ourselves. "We think we are really good" - ILLUSTRATE IT -
- Breaking in a new QB versus their 6th year highest paid player in CFB.
- Lost turnover battle 2:0 and still tied with 1:30 left
- First start QB score more on Miami THAN ANY OTHER TEAM ALL SEASON
- Wait that's not true SMU scored 26 - LOL
- Lost our best OL in the offseason so had a lot to figure out against their strongest unit
- Easily our worst defensive showing of the season down 21-7 going into the fourth, new DC was on a well earned hot seat early
- Alabama lost that same weekend 31-17 to a team Miami was beating 28-3 headed into the 4th quarter - LOL SEC SEC SEC

Then show the TAMU tackle/hold that won them the game thanks to SEC refs on loop in the backdrop.

 

[BoredIrish]

I agree, but the SEC has too much ability to influence a human committee to agree to go back to computers.

 

[IrishJacks]

Who’s to blame for Notre Dame’s shocking snub? ESPN, the system, the ACC and yes, the Irish

Notre Dame’s CFP selection Sunday gut-punch pulled the plug on a season with legitimate national title aspirations.

www.nytimes.com

 

[IrishLax]

ND PR department sucks. J Love should have been pre-season Heisman hyped. NBC should slobber on ND more than the opponent with Brady Quinn and Ryan Harris unfiltered. We had Doug F-ing Flutie for years - WTF are we even doing with our own TV deal if we aren't levering it?

Now Soft Peter Bevacqua -'erm ah - process was unclear, ah derp, we think everyone is super nice and special too. Uhm ah - maybe we can just hug it out and communicate better next time someone is planning on ..." FUCKING ME IN THE ASS? Weaksauce - ACC network playing our worst game 24/7 and we are having afternoon tea laying more praise on the other teams than ourselves. "We think we are really good" - ILLUSTRATE IT -
- Breaking in a new QB versus their 6th year highest paid player in CFB.
- Lost turnover battle 2:0 and still tied with 1:30 left
- First start QB score more on Miami THAN ANY OTHER TEAM ALL SEASON
- Wait that's not true SMU scored 26 - LOL
- Lost our best OL in the offseason so had a lot to figure out against their strongest unit
- Easily our worst defensive showing of the season down 21-7 going into the fourth, new DC was on a well earned hot seat early
- Alabama lost that same weekend 31-17 to a team Miami was beating 28-3 headed into the 4th quarter - LOL SEC SEC SEC

Then show the TAMU tackle/hold that won them the game thanks to SEC refs on loop in the backdrop.

I do think it should be a large discussion point that we have no "advocates" and we aren't really doing enough to advocate for ourselves either. NBC is a poor partner because they don't reach a lot of eyeballs and they go out of their way to shade ND for reasons that escape me. The lack of concerted media push behind Love was a bit shocking, other schools lobby much harder for their guys.

Way too much "taking the high road" and "trusting the process" ... which doesn't work is ESPN is running cover for the other guys.

 

[Rudy89]

I do think it should be a large discussion point that we have no "advocates" and we aren't really doing enough to advocate for ourselves either. NBC is a poor partner because they don't reach a lot of eyeballs and they go out of their way to shade ND for reasons that escape me. The lack of concerted media push behind Love was a bit shocking, other schools lobby much harder for their guys.

Way too much "taking the high road" and "trusting the process" ... which doesn't work is ESPN is running cover for the other guys.

ND needs to embrace the hate. Go full Kyle Busch or Denny Hamlin (up until recently with both anyway)

 

[FWIrish4]

This is an incredible piece highlighting everything that happened.

I will warn you it is long, but absolutely worth the read. If the author is on IE, props to you.

 

[Bishop2b5]

Bama legends Mark Ingram and Damien Harris saying ND should be in over Bama is Exhibit A for me. I respected the hell out of those guys as players because they were smart and played hard. That intelligence and realness carried over to their broadcasting careers.

I like Saban's film room, but Gameday is otherwise saccharine bullshit with blathering from a former punter with an 85 IQ peppered in. In light of that and the fact that other networks have allowed analysts to present differing viewpoints, I will be disregarding ESPN's analysis of the sport going forward, save for actual games.

Even Saban said there was one team left out that obviously should've been in, referring to ND. His issue is two guaranteed spots in the CFP to G5 teams that likely aren't close to being amongst the top 12 teams in the country.

 

[NorthDakota]

I was out of town this weekend in Fargo watching North Dakota State lose a first round playoff game for the first time in like 30+ years (blowing a 14 point lead in about 5 minutes no less!) so I was unable to actually watch any of the conference championship games. I also haven't read the hundreds/thousands of posts on this topic so my thoughts have likely been expressed by others but here we go (posting this for my own sanity).

1. Notre Dame should have been in over Alabama. Alabama melted down the last month. They are essentially a 7 on 7 team on offense now. They haven't showed up for a game since either Tennessee or Vanderbilt (depending on how you look at it). Struggled with SoCar, LSU, lost to OU, needed everything to go right to beat *Auburn* and got the shit kicked out of them by Georgia. The conventional thinking and I think the committee has said in the past that recent play matters. Well Alabama sucked the last 6 weeks. They had a great win at Georgia and a very good win against Vanderbilt. But the rest of their season was lackluster at best and downright mediocre down the stretch.

Even putting aside their downward trend, strictly looking at the committee, Notre Dame was placed above Alabama after they lost to OU. They did *nothing* to jump ND. The committee cannot explain that away. It just can't be done. Auburn lost to everyone this year. Beating Auburn should not be rewarded with anything. I could see showing a 11-0 Alabama some grace if they had lost to Auburn (rivalry game!) but that wasn't the case here. Alabama did nothing to jump Notre Dame. So the committee either screwed up their ranking putting ND above Alabama or they screwed up putting Alabama above ND after the Auburn game. They never addressed that in a coherent way that I saw.

Finally, the conference championships need to be addressed. If there is a reward for winning, there needs to be at least the potential for negative consequence for losing. Alabama getting jail sexed on national TV, looking completely helpless, while already being essentially a bubble team needs to have consequences. Had Alabama lost 31-28 or 21-17 or even made the game remotely competitive, I could be convinced they should have maybe only dropped a spot or something. BYU faced consequences. Why didn't Alabama?

2. Notre Dame should have been in over Miami.

This one is pretty straightforward. On Tuesday, Notre Dame was better than Miami. On Sunday morning, Notre Dame was not better, despite neither team playing nor any common opponents or whatever playing. Notre Dame and Miami were idle in every sense of the word. This was one of two things IMO. 1) the pressure from national media and conference politicking wore the committee down (which is a problem) or 2) the committee decided that they were wrong from the get go that Notre Dame was a better team.

If (1), I think the committee was deathly afraid of the backlash of the ACC (espn partner?) not getting a team in the field. I don't think there would have been much/any backlash if/when Notre Dame proceeded to win a game or two in the playoffs. *Everyone* other than Miami homers and the bona fide ND haters seemed to basically agree that ND is a better team. But the wailing and gnashing of teeth would have been loud until that happened.

3. Notre Dame is justified and probably correct to decline a bowl invitation.

This may become a norm. I guess it depends how much conferences start fining their members for not playing games. But the bowl system has been on life support for the better part of a couple decades, probably since at least 2014 and absolutely since 12 team playoff. Now that a dozen teams have a shot at the national championship, the rest is just functionally the NIT and/or the other NCAA basketball post-season tourneys. Its not a reward for a great season. Its just a silly exhibition game for losers who didn't make it to The Show. I don't see a ton of value in the extra fifteen practices, but if Freeman wants those extra practices, I would encourage ND to consider just having the practices and fighting it out in litigation or paying a fine if necessary.

As to the act of actually declining the bowl invite, I also support it on the grounds of not giving ESPN what they want. If someone gives you a shit sandwich and tells you to eat it in front of everyone, I don't see the value in doing so. All the talk about "you are only hurting yourselves" or "think about the kids/fans" is disingenuous. Its a silly exhibition game with a bunch of dudes sitting out. Its not 1996 anymore. People (myself included) shit on Christian McCaffrey for starting the trend of stars not playing in these games because its stupid. Now its just common knowledge that people with a decent draft stock will probably not play the game. Its implicitly acknowledged by *everyone* that the game doesn't matter. Particularly after you are told on Tuesday that you are almost certainly going to The Show, and everything went according to your needs on conference championship Saturday, and then the rug is pulled from under you.

People will talk about "oh competitors want to compete!" Thats also silly. I know they used to do it but probably still do, anyways, after my senior year of wrestling I got invited to some "best of the best" or whatever wrestling tournaments. Everyone who made it to a state championship final got invited to these big tournaments to compete against the finalists from other states. I don't know a single guy who went. Why? Because its a silly exhibition tournament after the season is over and a money grab for organizers.

 

[Bane]

I do think it should be a large discussion point that we have no "advocates" and we aren't really doing enough to advocate for ourselves either. NBC is a poor partner because they don't reach a lot of eyeballs and they go out of their way to shade ND for reasons that escape me. The lack of concerted media push behind Love was a bit shocking, other schools lobby much harder for their guys.

Way too much "taking the high road" and "trusting the process" ... which doesn't work is ESPN is running cover for the other guys.

NBC is a terrible partner. I get they're not as big as ESPN/Disney but good Lord, they could at least pretend to care during the actual broadcasts. It also doesn't make any sense from a business standpoint why they would subtly undermine their biggest CFB investment. The better we do and the more often we get into the playoffs, the more eyeballs on their network when we play. I've never expected total homers in the booth on NBC, but man at least pick people who don't seem to have disdain for us and talk up our opponents every game.

 

[NorthDakota]

I do think it should be a large discussion point that we have no "advocates" and we aren't really doing enough to advocate for ourselves either. NBC is a poor partner because they don't reach a lot of eyeballs and they go out of their way to shade ND for reasons that escape me. The lack of concerted media push behind Love was a bit shocking, other schools lobby much harder for their guys.

Way too much "taking the high road" and "trusting the process" ... which doesn't work is ESPN is running cover for the other guys.

Your best advocate is always going to be yourself.

But yeah Notre Dame is absolutely in a pickle there. The networks want their conferences to do well. NBC knows they'll get what they get with ND regardless. And conferences are militantly loyal to other members of the conference. Its like every conference is now copycatting the weird "SEC SEC SEC" energy their fans/media have engaged in for the last couple decades. Toss in the weird jealousy/hatred Notre Dame gets for being independent and its a perfect storm for people to get worked up into the storm we've seen for the last six weeks.

 

[jprue24]

Once again, it’s not the why. It’s the how.

Hats to anyone brave enough to visit social media.

Gonna avoid it for quite some time and just look here for the takes that aren’t filled with venom to get clicks.

“I hate ND, let me spend the next 30 minutes using their name to increase engagement”


*I was watching a live podcast with these Miami shmucks a few weeks ago. Flat bill hats, covered in tattoos, giant jewelry, exaggerated accents. They were like a caricature if you asked a toddler to draw the typical Miami fan.

Anyhoo, there were like 600 listeners because all they were doing was shitting on ND.

I commented “talk about your own team for 5 consecutive minutes and see what happens”

They took the bait, and the viewers went down 90% about a minute in, because nobody gives a shit about Miami


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This shit sucked me back into twitter and I'm ashamed.

 

[NDpendent]

Mods, let's lock this thread. We should boycott everything related to the 2025 college playoffs