Growing anger over Notre Dame independence
The biggest story of the final College Football Playoff selection was that Notre Dame was denied and missed the 12-team playoffs. The Fighting Irish were shocked by the defiance, and in response, they decided to forego the bowling season entirely. There is a lot of frustration among Fighting Irish fans with the ACC, and it seems to have spread to college football.
On the latest episode of “The Joel Klatt Show,” Klatt talked about what he heard when he was in Las Vegas for the National Football Foundation Awards, and Notre Dame was a big topic of conversation. He said Notre Dame’s independence was seen as a major frustration in the industry. The feeling was that they didn’t like that Notre Dame considered to deserve special treatment.
“There’s a pretty broad displeasure with Notre Dame and the way they’ve conducted themselves over the past week, more specifically, their independence,” Klatt said. “And I thought that was really interesting, because not many people in previous years were saying that. You have to understand this, if you’re at a conference, even if you’re like a powerful brand at a conference.”
“You look at Notre Dame and you start thinking to yourself, why do we have to go along with 17, 16, 15 other schools and have some kind of negotiation within ourselves to represent this one seat at the table as far as college football is concerned. And Notre Dame can just throw itself in there and they get a seat in all these conversations, and our special treatment and special treatment. Discontent with that.”
Klatt also said the general mood in the room was that if you don’t like it, you should join the conference.
“A lot of feelings, hey Notre Dame, joining the conference,” Klatt said.
The displeasure stems from the fact that Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevaccua invaded the ACC and accused him of attacking Notre Dame for three weeks. This drama could only begin between the Fighting Irish and the ACC.
2025-12-11 18:18:00
