Notre Dame football continues to act like it’s above everybody else

After being excluded from the College Football Playoff on Sunday, the University of Notre Dame petulantly announced that it would refuse to play in whichever bowl game the Fighting Irish were invited to, likely the Pop-Tarts Bowl against the Brigham Young University Cougars, who were also excluded from the playoffs. Notre Dame, which finished with a 10-2 record, released a statement Sunday saying that it appreciated “all the support from our families and fans, and we’re hoping to bring the 12th national title to South Bend in 2026.”

Whether Notre Dame should or shouldn’t have been included in the 2025 College Football Playoffs isn’t the point.

There’s always drama with who gets in and who’s left out of the College Football Playoff. In previous years, there’s been a great deal of grumbling when Notre Dame, often accused of getting preferential treatment for its past success and huge TV ratings, was included. Take 2018 and 2021. Many argued that Notre Dame didn’t belong in what was then a four-team playoff. And indeed, in 2018 the Fighting Irish got dusted by Clemson 30-3, and in 2021, Alabama dominated them 31-14.

Most important, none of the teams that the CFP shunned in the years Notre Dame was questionably included took their ball and went home. They played in the bowl games they were invited to. That’s the opposite of how Notre Dame is behaving now.

Whether Notre Dame should or shouldn’t have been included in the 2025 College Football Playoff isn’t the point. There are arguments for and against including it in college football’s version of “the Big Dance.” We could blather on about Alabama getting in despite losing three games, the strength of teams’ schedules, and rankings for schools like Tulane and James Madison. What matters here is that Notre Dame’s refusal to play could upend a very profitable college bowl system. Even the small to midtier bowls pay anywhere from $800,000 to a few million dollars per team (money those teams split with others in their conference). The numbers go up significantly for the major bowl games, though exact figures aren’t available.

10-2 Notre Dame announces it will not accept a bowl bid after missing the playoff.

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Is Notre Dame going to be a pioneer for teams by further devaluing the bowl season? Star players and coaches already frequently skip out on bowl games — players to prepare for their NFL careers, coaches to move to their next gig. If Notre Dame starts a trend and entire teams start dropping out, then why even continue the charade of meaningless games to add to the profits of schools and sportsbooks but put at risk the health of players ticketed for the NFL?

The other side of me says that Notre Dame can afford to do this because of its rather plentiful coffers. Some other schools, unable to compete in the Wild West that is transfer portals and licensing agreements, instead need every bonus dollar that comes from these bowl games, no matter how small. Notre Dame isn’t going broke anytime soon. The financial incentive for other teams to participate, then, could help save bowl season, even as it becomes less consequential with every expansion of the CFP.

Is Notre Dame going to be a pioneer for other teams by further devaluing the bowl season? 

Notre Dame has always been the fly in the ointment, annoying many college football enthusiasts. As one of just two independent programs, it plays by a different set of rules than almost everybody else. (The other independent program in the Football Bowl Subdivision is the University of Connecticut.) This means Notre Dame misses out on playing in a potential conference championship game every season. Its résumé is made up of the regular season schedule alone. This is one reason teams that feel they have to win their conference championship to get into the playoffs have complained about Notre Dame; it doesn’t have that burden.

It should also be noted that while Notre Dame, 11th in the final CFP rankings, is missing out on the playoffs this year, it will be included next year due to a memorandum of understanding signed last year, guaranteeing the team a spot if it finishes in the top 12 of the final rankings.

Notre Dame misses out on at least $4 million by being excluded from the playoffs, which is really nothing to a school and program with its wealth. But for as little as it seems to be losing financially, the losses might be much larger in terms of the perception, fair or unfair, that it sometimes behaves like it is above everybody else.