Texas Tech HC McGuire Calls Out Notre Dame Over CFP Bracket Snub, 'Be in a Conference'

Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire doesn't have a ton of sympathy for Notre Dame after they were controversially left out of this year's College Football Playoff.

"You hate to eliminate anybody, but I do think when you have a criteria, where you're going to select a team, everybody should be in that same criteria. I don't wanna make Notre Dame mad, but, be in a conference and you're in the playoffs. If they're in the ACC, they're in the playoffs. That's nothing against [them]—Marcus Freeman, I think he's an absolute rock star, I would want my son to play for Marcus Freeman—that's not what I'm talking about. I'm just talking about, across the board, let's make sure everybody is measured the same."

As always, a number of choices for this year's CFP were controversial, specifically among the at-large bids. None was more debatable than both Miami and Alabama making the field at the expense of Notre Dame, who were in the top-10 of every CFP Committee rankings except the final one.

Granted, it was just as debatable whether Notre Dame should have been ranked among Miami in the first place, seeing as the Hurricanes held a head-to-head win over the Fighting Irish.

Starting next year, Notre Dame—who is independent in football and isn't aligned with a conference—will automatically qualify for the 12-team CFP if they are ranked in the top 12. This year, however, the only automatic bids went to the five highest-ranked conference champions (next year, the ACC, SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 champions will all receive an automatic berth, as will the highest-ranked Group of 5 champion).

The blowback from this year's decision has been significant. Notre Dame refused to play in a bowl, scorned by the snub. The Fighting Irish, who play most sports in the ACC, saw their relationship with the conference strained after the ACC advocated for Miami getting the final at-large bid (though tensions are reportedly waning). And many folks around the sport continue to believe that Notre Dame's unique independent status needs to go away, for a number of reasons.

As Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reported earlier in December, "Many stakeholders across college sports—perhaps even some in the CFP selection committee room—have expressed public and private belief that the Irish should join a league."

Notre Dame may not be inclined to do so, given that they have a pretty good thing going already, but Dan Wolken of Yahoo Sports reported that "Athletic directors in other leagues, who learned from Dellenger on Sunday about the memorandum of understanding that grants Notre Dame preferential playoff access, are threatening to freeze them out of future schedules."

Wolken added that it remains uncertain if such schools would follow through, given that Notre Dame remains a huge national brand and a major draw. But as McGuire noted, there probably wouldn't have been a controversy in the first place if Notre Dame was a part of a conference.