Big 12’s Brett Yormark calls out Notre Dame’s Pete Bevacqua

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark on Tuesday took issue with Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua’s criticism of the ACC, calling its behavior “egregious.”

After Notre Dame was bounced from the College Football Playoff in favor of Miami, which earned a head-to-head victory over the Fighting Irish, Bevacqua accused the ACC of favoring the Hurricanes over his school on social media and in league scheduling.

Yormark, speaking Tuesday at the Sports Business Journal’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum, took aim at Bevacqua, saying Bevacqua “is totally out of bounds in his approach, and if he were in the room, I would tell him the same thing.”

All Notre Dame varsity sports, except football (which is independent) and men’s hockey, are members of the ACC. Since 2014, Notre Dame Football and the ACC have had a scheduling partnership in which the Irish play at least five ACC opponents per season.

Bevacqua has criticized the ACC in several media appearances since Notre Dame’s omission from the CFP, including earlier Tuesday, when during a news conference he claimed the conference had orchestrated a sustained and targeted social media campaign against the Irish program.

ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said in a statement Monday that the conference supports his efforts “to support and advance the interests of our 17 football-playing member institutions.”

Yormark said Tuesday he didn’t like how Notre Dame responded and said the ACC “saved” him in 2020 when the Irish played a 10-game ACC schedule during COVID. They went 9–0 in league play that year, before losing in the league championship game in a rematch against Clemson, but were nevertheless selected as the No. 4 seed in the four-team College Football Playoff, where they lost in the semifinals to Alabama.

Yormark said PSC Chairman Hunter Yurachek was transparent about the committee’s logic.

“I think Pete’s behavior was egregious,” Yormark said. “It was blatant to go after Jim Phillips, when they saved Notre Dame during COVID. … The president said that as Notre Dame and Miami get closer, a face-off would be a factor, OK?”

Yormark noted that one of his own Big 12 teams, BYU, was also excluded from the CFP based on the committee’s criteria despite going 11-2, with its only losses coming against No. 4 Texas Tech, once in November and again Saturday in the Big 12 championship game.

“BYU lost,” Yormark said. “They came closer, [and] the face-to-face meeting made the difference in this decision. »