Notre Dame is justified snubbing the bowl system after suffering an unjust snub from the CFP

It's too easy to criticize No. 11 Notre Dame for its response to being snubbed.  

The Irish (10-2) lost the three-way argument to No. 9 Alabama (10-3) and No. 10 Miami (10-2) on Sunday and were left out of the 12-team playoff. Notre Dame – one of the largest brands in the sport – declined to participate in the postseason. You can keep your Pop-Tarts, thank you very much. 

"As a team, we've decided to withdraw our name from consideration for a bowl game following the 2025 season," Notre Dame wrote in a statement. "We appreciate all the support from our families and fans, and we're hoping to bring the 12th national title to South Bend in 2026." 

Pic.twitter.com/TyzavvzpC1

— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) December 7, 2025

Should you, as the kids say, respect their decision? Why not? Imagine the reaction out of Tuscaloosa and SEC country if the Crimson Tide – which lost the SEC championship game to No. 2 Georgia by three TDs – was the first team out of the playoff for the second straight year. What about South Beach – where the Hurricanes had the 27-24 victory against the Irish in the opener but did not play in their conference championship. Miami, like Alabama, finished on the wrong side of the bubble last year.

Skipping a bowl game and turning your back on the Bowl Season? Why not?

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Is Notre Dame's College Football Playoff snub justified? 

No. The Irish lost the head-to-head argument with Miami, despite the fact Notre Dame was ranked ahead of the Hurricanes all five previous weeks in the CFP Top 25. The Irish did nothing on the field to warrant a drop out of the top-10 in the rankings – and Notre Dame had a potential national championship-caliber team led by running back Jeremiyah Love and a defense that improved in the second half of the season.

The mechanics of that are easy for the committee to spin at that point. It is no longer a head-to-head argument, and the Irish lost the three-pronged battle with Miami and Alabama. That does not make it right. 

Spare the "play in a conference routine," as least as it pertains to the Hurricanes. Notre Dame and Miami dominated four common ACC opponents. The Hurricanes lost to unranked teams, and they represent a conference that crowned a five-loss champion on Saturday. The head-to-head victory matters, and it would have made sense to put the Irish and Hurricanes in based on their common metrics. 

At no point during that head-to-head argument in the last month did Notre Dame opposition concede the Irish beat No. 1 Florida State in 1993 in "The Game of the Century" but were not rewarded the national title because of an upset loss at No. 17 Boston College the following week. The Irish and Seminoles finished with one loss each, but Florida State won the national title. It was wrong then. 

Of course, Alabama got in the way – like it always does. Yes, the Crimson Tide played in the SEC championship game after getting the No. 1 seed out of a four-way tie for first – the crown jewel of conference title games. They also were dominated by Georgia in every facet on Saturday. The SEC has five playoff teams – which is fine – but it would have made more sense to at least slide Alabama one spot behind the Irish. There was no penalty for losing in a conference championship game. Which gets to the heart of why Notre Dame sitting out of a bowl game is a good thing.

MORE: Committee got it right after a month's worth of nonsense

Will Notre Dame sitting out of a bowl game be a good thing? 

Is Notre Dame whining simply because they cannot take advantage of a College Football Playoff format? Not really. The Irish made the CFP last season despite an early-season loss to Northern Illinois and made the championship game. 

Straight seeding will improve the quality of the playoff, but this year exposes a flaw. The five-highest conference champions rule will get looked at next. No. 11 Tulane and No. 12 James Madison are good stories, sure, but they will be heavy underdogs against No. 6 Ole Miss and No. 5 Oregon, respectively. If those games are blowouts, will you really believe that the Irish and No. 12 BYU – which paid the tab for a 34-7 loss to No. 4 Texas Tech in the Big 12 championship game – would not have been better matchups on the principle of fairness?

Come on, now. Even the most ardent Notre Dame hater knows that isn't even close to true. It's yet another reminder that the most compelling playoff product includes 16 teams, no automatic bids and the first two rounds on campus. 

Will Notre Dame sitting out of a bowl game help change that? No, but it is a reminder that when the most powerful brands in the sport are left out of the College Football Playoff for the product in place, then they will have no problem passing on the Pop-Tarts Bowl – even if that is the most marketable non-playoff bowl of them all. Would you have had this same energy had Florida State sat out of the Orange Bowl in protest of being left out for Alabama in 2023?

We know the answer to that, too. This is about Notre Dame. 

And its response is just fine in this case.

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