Golden Dome Column: Notre Dame Was Snubbed And Did The Right Thing Declining A Bowl

Notre Dame getting snubbed from the College Football Playoffs is a travesty and only represents the corruption that is the NCAA. The Committee decided that for whatever reason Alabama was a more deserving team to make the playoffs than the Irish. Sorry, they "decided". Alabama clearly was getting in no matter what and we should've sniffed out what they were going to do. The column I wrote last week outlines why this is egregious, but this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Look, most of the country agrees that Notre Dame got snubbed, but the ones still defending this or the one's saying "well, the head to head mattered at the end of the day" are either just haters or are not seeing the forest for the trees. I never understood the hatred for Notre Dame until now: the haters are just envious, "they hate us cause they ain't us" is probably the best way to describe it. Notre Dame fans do come across as elitists and there's some element of truth to that, but there's a good reason why. The school is certainly wealthy and the exposure has caused the program to attract talent over the years thus leading to the amount of success they've had, so it's understandable why people are tired of Notre Dame's elitism. But, why are they so hellbent over the school's Independent status? Why else do they roll their eyes when there's any mention of the NBC contract? Because they envy that. They want what we have. Just think about any random school, let's take Ohio State. Ohio State doesn't have the luxury of playing a schedule like Notre Dame does, however, they want it plus they don't have a major media corporation paying them top dollar to broadcast their games. Notre Dame doesn't have to worry about that. There is no revenue sharing for the program. Plus Ohio State has to recruit harder as they don't have the same exposure like Notre Dame does. Ohio State's games only get broadcasted locally in Ohio (and some parts of Michigan and Kentucky) and the only exposure they get is when it's a primetime game. Yes, Ohio State is one of the more recognizable teams in America and get a lot of attention, but their broadcasting exposure goes so far. As for Notre Dame? NBC shows their games nationwide and on ESPN when they play any ACC team. That's an immense amount of exposure for any recruits making it easier for the program to bring these kids in from any part of the country. Ohio State just has to work harder and it shows because of how well they recruit. While Ohio State gets more money than Notre Dame does due to the Big Ten TV contract, Notre Dame earns more revenue from other places such as advertisement tied into the NBC contract. So really, Notre Dame gets more. (Speaking of Ohio State, if you really want to talk about elitism at it's finest, can we talk about how the school literally tried to trademark the word "the"? I mean, really!?)

A lot of fans of other teams roll their eyes over Notre Dame's independence, but the school would've already been in a conference over a decade ago. In fact, they almost were a Big Ten side. Over a decade ago, Notre Dame tried to join the conference, but an anti-Catholic and former Michigan head coach named Fielding Yost, who had long hated the school for whatever reason, was successful in getting their bid to join denied. That was the last attempt Notre Dame ever made at joining the Big Ten. Ever since then, the program and the fan base has embraced independence. So, why else do you think the school continues to not attempt to join a conference and keeps making broadcast rights deals? Notre Dame basically is just flipping the bird to the rest of college football. They have built a national brand and they will continue a storied tradition that ironically is starting to be something pretty damn cool nowadays.

Notre Dame has shown that they aren't desperate to make money. Money does talk and certainly the Irish have done enough smart business deals to make more, but at least they aren't selling their souls. Let's be real, with all these conference realignments, schools are not valuing tradition and that's why the PAC-12 is in limbo right now and why the Big 12 is scrambling to find other programs to join their conference. It's also why the ACC is desperate to try and keep some of their schools. While hopefully the NCAA takes a stand against superconferences, that's unfortunately the trend that's going through collegiate sports as greed is prevailing. Tradition really means something and all these schools decided to just chase money. Now, Notre Dame is starting to get penalized for it.

What happened two Sundays ago is just a farce, no way around it. The only way Alabama had any sort of fighting chance was their strength of schedule which was 8th. Again, while that does speak volumes about the SEC, their resume does not beat Notre Dame's. Otherwise, this proves that either the evaluation process of selecting teams for the playoffs is broken or that there is some sort of bias/corruption. So, with what happened, the committee sent a message to Notre Dame: join a conference or else we will find ways to exclude you. Why else are conferences trying to adopt 9-game conference fixtures? Why else are superconferences developing? Why else would both freaking Tulane and James Madison make the playoffs (which is a different conversation in itself)? Part of the problem is now ESPN is starting to put their hands into influencing collegiate sports, especially football. We all know football is consumed by so many Americans that it drives viewership and money for broadcasts. ESPN gets that SEC football is the best and that's why Alabama being in the playoffs makes so much sense. ESPN is competing with NBC for money even though it's a stupid approach as NBC doesn't even broadcast playoff games. They're going to make more anyways. But ESPN figures that Alabama's brand is going to drive ratings more through the roof and the committee sees what they are trying to explain. ESPN has the rights to all playoff games, they own the SEC Network AND ACC Network, they love controversy to drive ratings....it just is so obvious. What's stupid on both ESPN and the committee's part is that leaving a brand out like Notre Dame does more harm than good. Like legit, the biggest brand was left out and they both think it's going to help? It's not, it just won't. Fans of other teams always said the committee had bias towards Notre Dame, but this proves otherwise. The committee knows that Notre Dame brings money to the table, they just see what ESPN is trying to sell them. Honestly, that's just stupid.

Honestly while writing this column it makes even more sense that ESPN is influencing the Committee as owning the ACC Network plays a large role. The partnership that Notre Dame has with the conference on an annual basis should benefit the ACC more than the Irish. Notre Dame doesn't care, but it definitely helps their fixtures when it comes to strength of schedule. ESPN thinks that they have a stranglehold on Notre Dame as they believe the Irish need this especially with how the school has a few of their programs (especially basketball) involved in the conference. But, ahhhhh, not so fast my friend (just wanted to stake a Lee Corso reference in there for ironic reasons), Notre Dame has more power and both the NCAA and ACC NEED Notre Dame more than Notre Dame needs them. This, my Irish faithful friends, is called stupidity. If ESPN really wanted an actual stranglehold on Notre Dame, they would've purchased their TV broadcast rights. But because the program is independent, it makes zero sense for them to do that. ESPN is clearly trying to force Notre Dame's hand in joining a conference. The network understands the value of the school and they figure it would only benefit them more having them join a conference to help drive ratings, but even so, just snubbing the biggest brand in the sport out of the biggest competition, is just so stupid as ESPN is only going to lose money off this. It's also why the ACC attacked Notre Dame on social media despite the partnership. I hope the school leaves them done and dusted and let's that conference curse themselves.

Which leads to my next point, good on Notre Dame for rejecting a bowl game. Let's be real here, the Committee figured they were going to make money anyways as did ESPN, considering they are showing all the Bowl games, as both figured that the program was going to accept the terms and play a Bowl game as well as gain some money out of the controversy. School AD Pete Bavacqua went to bat for the program here calling out the absurdity of the selection process and that's what led to them deciding on rejecting a Bowl game. If you're not going to the playoffs, then what's the point? So, with both Bowl games not having any meaning left and being snubbed out of the playoffs on such BS reasons, then why do anything to help ESPN and the NCAA make more money. Both need Notre Dame to participate, so screw 'em. There's been many of comments made on social media calling the school as "crybabies", but this isn't the case here. We're just angry and protesting this. Remember, "they hate us cause they aint us". It's been utterly absurd what people have been saying about Notre Dame all over social media as they come across as jealous and envious or are showing blind hatred towards the school, unless you were a big time rival, really isn't warranted. I've now come to figure out that the school does things the right way when going about their own business. Sure, maybe some head coach hires in the past haven't panned out, but that is to the concern of the Irish faithful and school, no one else. What has transpired in the last couple of weeks has made me fall in love even more with this team and the school. At least we pride ourselves in academics unlike some other fanbases with their schools (like are you kidding me Alabama?).

Now that other schools are threatening Notre Dame to be freezed out of their schedules is honestly hilarious. They just need to admit they are trying to force the Irish's hands when in reality, the school holds all the power over them. Now THAT is crybaby behavior! The hypocrisy is real. To us it's like "fine, try that, schools will play us regardless". Like, they can't be that serious right? They're willing to lose all that money? Notre Dame holds the upper hand.

Then there is that stupid argument that Notre Dame plays a cupcake schedule. Well, that isn't exactly true, but there is a case to be made that the partnership with the ACC does a lot of disservice to them, though that's also on programs in that conference for not being good. If the ACC wants to remain relevant in college football then they need to do a better job, that's literally it. Notre Dame and the ACC agree to these schedules years in advance, so it's not the school's fault that these other teams they play are absolute crap when those in-advance schedules come around. Then let's talk about the other teams they play like a school like Bowling Green or Central Michigan....doesn't every big team in the country schedule things like that too? And when looking at the 2025 schedule, they put in a team from the Big 10 and the SEC in there, so actually it makes Notre Dame's schedule look even better. Is it any different than Alabama playing Troy? Or Ohio State playing Ohio University? Notre Dame is also trying to preserve classic rivalries, something USC could use a lesson from, as scheduling Stanford, Navy, USC, and Purdue is something the school cherishes. Yes, with how those programs are right now, it makes things easier on the schedule for the Irish, but at least Notre Dame isn't money hungry unlike some other schools are. Could Notre Dame do better? Yeah, they could as honestly they should form something with the Big Ten as that would at least preserve some rivalries and develop new ones. Seriously, Indiana and Michigan would be awesome plus even becoming a bigger rival with Ohio State would be great. It just makes sense (hell, even get the other programs at the school to leave the ACC and join the Big Ten). Notre Dame has the power to make their schedule as difficult as possible and I firmly believe they will in the future to prove a point (as evidenced by their agreement with Clemson) and try to stack up their schedule as realistically as possible to make it hard on themselves. Just imagine Alabama or Ohio State or even a Miami being played frequently (and that might be a fun article to write about soon), that would mean that Notre Dame is trying to challenge themselves every year with a difficult schedule just to prove they belong in the playoffs. Yes, even trying to schedule a gauntlet would be fun, but also not realistic. You do need to schedule some cupcake games, but scheduling a hard slate of games shouldn't be dismissed. Let's also talk about strength of schedule, another stupid argument against Notre Dame. Yes, it was ranked 44th, but it was still better than Ohio State, Indiana, and Miami. But of course people want to criticize us for having a cupcake schedule. Please....pure hypocrisy.

So I end this column with just saying is I can't wait to see how Notre Dame deciding to not play a Bowl game does in the future of the sport. Going full nuclear if you ask me. Honestly, even if there wasn't any controversy and the program decided not to participate in a Bowl game, it still is the right decision as the playoffs have diluted the Bowl games in general and it will continue to do so when it inevitably expands again. Last year, how the playoff system was set up was as good as it could be. This year, complete and utter nonsense. Jeremiyah Love made some comments recently saying that Notre Dame put themselves into this position and he is 100 percent right and the program should hold themselves accountable for those reasons, but it doesn't mean it was right to leave them out of it. I'm all for Miami making the playoffs, in fact I advocated for it, but with both schools being idle the week of the playoff selections and with Miami being behind Notre Dame, Miami shouldn't have leapfrogged over the Irish. The only major problem is Alabama being in there especially being over both Miami and Notre Dame. Utterly ridiculous. Notre Dame, according to the analytics including ESPN's, showed that they were a top five side going into the end of the season. That alone proves a lot. This was a really good Irish team that could've made another deep playoff run. But to the Committee, ESPN, SEC, and ACC, you play stupid games...you win stupid prizes.