Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman, left, greets players as they return to the sideline during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
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A few months after graduating from Notre Dame, Pete Bevacqua attended the so-called Game of the Century in November 1993 and watched his alma mater defeat Florida State. The next week, the No. 1 ranked Irish lost by two points to Boston College, an outcome that came back to haunt them. Although Notre Dame and Florida State each had only one loss and the Irish had won their head-to-head matchup, the Seminoles won the national title, as voted upon by the sports writers and coaches.
To this day, longtime Notre Dame fans and alumni as well as players and coaches still can’t fathom what happened back then. On Sunday, the same group had another major gripe that differs from 22 years ago in some ways but will likely sting just as much.
Notre Dame was the first team left out of the 12-team College Football Playoff even though it won its final 10 games and was seemingly safely in the field less than a week ago before getting jumped by Alabama and Miami. The decision didn’t sit well with anyone associated with the program, least of all Bevacqua, who is now the Irish’s athletics director.
“My feelings and the feelings here are just shock and, really, an absolute sense of sadness for our student-athletes,” Bevacqua told Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports on Sunday afternoon. “Overwhelming shock and sadness, like a collective feeling that we were all just punched in the stomach.”
Notre Dame was so upset with the CFP’s decision that the school declined to play in a non-CFP bowl game. It was a stunning end to a season that began with so much promise.
Coming off an appearance in the national title game in January, the Irish were sixth in the AP preseason poll. But they lost their first two games by a combined four points to Miami and Texas A&M, a stretch when they struggled mightily on defense and broke in a first-time starting quarterback in redshirt freshman CJ Carr, who had never thrown a college pass before this season.
As the weeks wore on and Notre Dame improved, winning each of its games by double digits, it seemed the Irish would be back in the CFP. When the initial rankings were released on Nov. 4, the Irish were No. 10, while Miami was No. 18. The teams had identical records, but Miami had lost two of its previous three games, causing CFP chair Mack Rhoades to comment that “for Miami, it’s about consistency and their lack of consistency” in why there were eight spots separating the Hurricanes and Irish.
In each of the next three weeks, Notre Dame was No. 9 in the rankings, while Miami moved up to No. 12 as both teams kept winning. But last Tuesday, two days after the Irish defeated Stanford 49-20, they moved down to No. 10, while Alabama moved up a spot to No. 9 even though the Crimson Tide needed a fourth down touchdown pass with 3:50 remaining to defeat Auburn. The Hurricanes stayed at No. 12.
Five days later, Alabama remained at No. 9 despite losing to No. 3 Georgia 28-7 in the Southeastern Conference title game, while Miami moved ahead of BYU (which lost by 27 points to No. 4 Texas Tech in the Big 12 title game) and Notre Dame, which was idle. The Irish finished 11th but they missed out on the 12-team field because the 11th and 12th spots went to the fourth- and fifth-highest ranked conference champions, which are guaranteed spots in the field.
During an interview with ESPN’s Rece Davis on Sunday, CFP committee chair Hunter Yurachek, who replaced Rhoades after he resigned last month, said Miami and Notre Dame were nearly identical in a few metrics such as schedule strength and results against common opponents. He then referenced Miami’s head-to-head victory as the deciding factor, an argument that is reasonable but flawed considering the process over the past month where Miami was always at least two spots behind Notre Dame.
Yurachek explained that the previous game didn’t hold weight until this week when the teams were only one spot apart even though the CFP’s selection protocol indicates teams are supposed to be compared in groups of four, meaning teams ranked ninth through 12th are measured against each other on a weekly basis. Miami and Notre Dame had been in that group the previous two weeks.
As for why Alabama didn’t drop despite the loss, as the other conference championship game losers had done, Yurachek said that “regardless of Alabama’s performance yesterday their body of work in those first 12 games…they deserve to stay at the nine spot.” The Crimson Tide handed Georgia its lone loss in late September, a stretch in which Alabama defeated four teams ranked in the AP top 16 at the time but only two (Georgia and No. 14 Vanderbilt) that ended up in the final top 25 CFP rankings. Miami and Notre Dame each have one win over top 25 CFP teams.
Alabama (10-3) is the only three-loss team in the field, having lost to Georgia, No. 8 Oklahoma and unranked Florida State (5-7) in the season opener. The Crimson Tide open up the playoffs with a rematch at Oklahoma, while Miami plays at Texas A&M, a team that Notre Dame lost to by one point at home thanks to a late missed extra point.
The Irish, meanwhile, are stuck thinking what-if and frustrated at how their playoff hopes were dashed despite all indications from the committee that they would be in the CFP if they just kept winning big. The disappointment of not being able to play for a national title ranks up there with the feeling in January 1994 after Notre Dame defeated Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl but finished second in the polls behind Florida State despite defeating the Seminoles several weeks earlier.
“I guess that didn’t count for anything,” Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz said at the time. “Everyone said it was the game of the century. I guess it was the game of the century if the right team had won.”
Despite the perceived snub of Notre Dame on Sunday, the CFP is a much better format than what was in place back in the 1990s and earlier when there was no playoff and championships weren’t usually decided on the field. Still, the CFP format is not perfect and could undergo changes, including expanding to 16 or more teams in the coming years.
While that is of no solace to Bevacqua, he told Yahoo Sports on Sunday that Notre Dame signed a memorandum of understanding that guarantees Notre Dame a spot in the CFP starting next year if it is ranked in the top 12. If the playoff expands to 14 teams and there are nine at-large berths (up from seven now), the Irish will have a spot if they’re in the top 13. But that is next year. Now, Bevacqua, coach Marcus Freeman, the players and everyone else associated with the Notre Dame program remain dejected at what could have been.
“Marcus said it perfectly: Usually there are reasons and answers and explanations, but we don’t have one for you with this,” Bevacqua said of what Freeman told the players after the final rankings were released. “This is shocking and upsetting. An utter disbelief and sadness from our student athletes, who were led to believe since the CFP rankings started of what they needed to do and did everything they were asked to do.”