We are now a couple of days removed from the College Football Playoff Committee's shocking decision to leave Notre Dame out of the 2025-2026 playoffs. That decision caused a ripple affect for many to start questioning the committee's process and the role outside factors may have played. Notre Dame's athletic director Pete Bevacqua spoke on several shows and podcasts yesterday about his disagreement with the overall decision, the questionable process and their now tainted relationship with the ACC. Today, Bevacqua spoke about those same topics and what Notre Dame's resolve would be moving forward.
You can watch the entire press conference here:
Here are some of Bevacqua's comments from this afternoon's press conference:
Bevacqua On Relationship With The ACC
"We have the ultimate respect for the fellow universities in the ACC," Bevacqua explained. "It's not about the universities, it's not about Miami. I've texted back and forth with Dan Radakovich and sent him a text last night saying 'So happy you guys made it and I hope you guys go deep. You have the talent to win it all.' But what we were really surprised by and disappointed by was how the ACC Conference went on a social media campaign, in my opinion attacking our football program."
"The ACC is important to us and we're important to the ACC," Bevacqua continued. "Think about football for a minute; those ACC teams want to play us in football. Interesting stat, since 2014 when we started our football relationship with the ACC. If you look at stadiums, ACC games sell out 23% of the time. When Notre Dame goes to an ACC site, it's 90% of the time. When you think about ratings for ACC football games when they play Notre Dame, there's a tremendous lift. I don't understand why you would go on a social media campaign to attack an important partner."
Bevacqua On The House Settlement
"We are huge proponents of the house settlement," Bevacqua answered. "Give credit to Notre Dame before I arrived here in this role, was huge proponents and endorsed the concept of student athletes being fairly compensated. Let's be realistic with each other, the cap is $20.5 million, the first $2.5 million are scholarships. You're left with $18 million and schools around the country are going to use that compensation for NIL opportunities primarily for football, men's and women's basketball. Even if you start at $18 million, most schools are starting around the $16 or $15 million range."
"If you're placing a great emphasis on the value of the football program, which most major power four conference schools are, but then you read things and see things about what teams are setting aside for roster numbers," Bevacqua continued. "You see it in news reports, you see it in the back and forth with coaches negotiations. So the numbers we know that are out there don't compute with the cap number. I think we have to be honest and forthright with each other and have a set of rules that are realistic and reflect what's happening that reflect major college football in 2025 and beyond. I think the cap is too low, and I think if we keep operating under this rule of where the cap is, most major programs are going to have a tough time working backwards."
Bevacqua On What Notre Dame Can Do To Avoid This Playoff Situation Moving Forward
"We always want to know where we stand," Bevacqua answered. "Would I like to go back in time and beat Miami and beat Texas A&M? Sure. But we didn't; it was early in the season, two great games and heart breakers. What could we have done differently from that moment forward? We couldn't have done anything better. We were told that we were in. Rankings can change, I'm not naive, but based on what happened in the rest of the season around the country and based on what we did and what Marcus [Freeman's] team did."
"There's nothing that I can say we could have done differently," Bevacqua continued. "From early Sunday morning after the A&M game from getting off of that plane in the snow in South Bend at 8:30 in the morning on Sunday from Stanford, we could not have done anything better. In the future, at least let us respond to a data set that we can rely on. If you're getting a ranking that's a hollow ranking, you can't make decisions to improve it if it's a moving target."
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