Notre Dame AD Says ACC Has Done 'Permanent Damage' to Relationship Amid CFP Snub
While Notre Dame is not in a conference for football, it has a relationship with the ACC that calls for a handful of games every season.
But that relationship, which also features the Fighting Irish being a part of the ACC in other sports, has been damaged in the eyes of Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua after his program was left out of the College Football Playoff.
During a Monday appearance on The Dan Patrick Show, Bevacqua said the "ACC has done permanent damage" to that relationship.
He continued and said, "We were mystified by the actions of the conference, to attack their biggest business partner in football and a member conference in 24 sports."
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips issued a statement on Monday, saying that the ACC never said Notre Dame was "not a worthy candidate" to make the playoffs:
The final at-large spot for the 12-team CFP field ended up coming down to Notre Dame and Miami. While the Hurricanes defeated the Fighting Irish in their head-to-head matchup this season, Notre Dame was consistently ahead of them in every updated set of rankings.
Until it wasn't.
The CFP selection committee gave the nod to the Hurricanes in the final rankings that determined the 12-team field even though both teams were idle during conference championship week. However, BYU lost to Texas Tech and dropped, meaning it was no longer in between the Hurricanes and Fighting Irish.
With those two teams being back-to-back in the final rankings, the head-to-head result seemed to play a bigger role.
The argument could be made that Notre Dame should be more upset with Alabama's inclusion, as the Crimson Tide ended up moving up a spot from the Week 14 poll to the final Week 16 poll despite an ugly seven-point win over 5-7 Auburn and a blowout loss to Georgia.
Alabama was also the only team to lose a conference title game and not drop in the rankings.
Alas, much of the debate centered on Miami against Notre Dame, and the ACC did not exactly make it a mystery where it stood. It publicly advocated for the Hurricanes' inclusion on social media, and commissioner Jim Phillips said Miami "absolutely" deserved to be in the CFP:
Bevacqua's comments made it clear that Notre Dame was paying attention to its business partner publicly backing Miami.
While it remains to be seen if the Fighting Irish will take any steps to address its relationship with the ACC in the future, they did respond to the CFP snub by announcing they will not participate in a bowl game this season.
