Though the Fighting Irish are a football independent, they are members of the ACC in all other sports, which adds some insult to the injury of the Irish missing the CFP for Miami this year. Notre Dame, of course, was ranked ahead of the Hurricanes heading into the final rankings, which made Miami’s jump into the field all the more shocking.
According to Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua, the blatant politicking done by the conference against the Fighting Irish — including repeated ACC Network airings of Miami’s Week 1 win over Notre Dame and turning its social media accounts into a Miami highlight reel during the final week of the regular season, not to mention graphics comparing resumes — the actions of the ACC are going to have a longstanding effect.
‘We were mystified by the actions of the conference,’ Bevacqua said on the ‘Dan Patrick Show’ Monday morning after some customary niceties about the respect Notre Dame has for the teams in the ACC. ‘To attack their biggest business partner in football and a member of their conference in 24 of our other sports. And I would tell you Dan, I wouldn’t be honest with you if I didn’t say that they have certainly done permanent damage to the relationship between the conference and Notre Dame.’
When asked to elucidate by Patrick, Bevacqua obliged.
‘Just, we didn’t appreciate the fact that we were singled out repeatedly and compared to Miami — not by Miami, Miami has every right to do that — but it raised a lot of eyebrows here that the conference was taking shots at us. And that’s just not something we chose to do. We wouldn’t choose to do that in the future and people might disagree with us but that’s just not something that we’d be comfortable with.’
Bevacqua praised Miami for its season as well.
On ESPN’s ‘First Take’ Monday morning, Paul Finebaum called Bevacqua’s public disapproval of the ACC as ‘the biggest story of the day.’
“Someone in Charlotte at the ACC office has some serious explaining to do because not only did they pile on social media, they used their own network to re-play on the ACC Network, the Notre Dame-Miami game every hour on the hour, and whether you agree or disagree with Notre Dame being in the field… the fact the Notre Dame athletic director is essentially saying ‘permanent damage,’ that means ‘We don’t want anything to do with you anymore.’’
Notre Dame, as it stands, has five ACC games per season and retains its independence in football. Finebaum said that may be threatened.
‘Just to repeat, Notre Dame is a member of the ACC in every sport but football and in football they play five conference games,’ Finebaum said. ‘That’s incredibly valuable if you’re a Wake Forest or Duke or North Carolina or North Carolina State. So the real story today coming out of this: Are they going to get out of the ACC and will the Big Ten or the SEC suddenly say, ‘Hey, Notre Dame we can figure out a way to have a relationship with you as well.’”
There would be substantial obstacles to Notre Dame working something out with the Big Ten or the SEC. The SEC has repeatedly stated it will not be adding teams, a decision likely vindicated by the tiebreaker debacle it encountered ahead of the championship game this year. The Big Ten, meanwhile, is unlikely to be as favorable in scheduling games as the ACC is, with a longtime rivalry game against USC slated to come to an end soon and the Fighting Irish’s rivalry against Michigan already in a lapsed state. Both conferences would also undoubtedly balk at the idea of Notre Dame keeping its independence in football, something the school has always placed great value in.
Ultimately Bevacqua and Notre Dame are making moves to secure their future in the CFP landscape and the ACC was doing the same. As long as the two are competing interests in every athletic department’s golden goose, that’s likely to be the case. But with the Irish being on the losing side, they clearly want the college football world to know of their grievances.