Notre Dame fume at ACC’s ‘shots at us’ in build-up to College Football Playoff snub | College football

Notre Dame does not take its perceived College Football Playoff snobbery lightly.

After announcing that the Fighting Irish would withdraw from bowling on Sunday, Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua embarked on a media tour to voice the school’s concerns.

He took aim at the Atlantic Coast Conference, with which Notre Dame has a football scheduling agreement, during an appearance Monday on the Dan Patrick Show.

“We have been mystified by the conference’s actions to attack their largest business partner in football and a member of their conference in 24 of our other sports. I wouldn’t be honest with you if I didn’t say they have caused permanent damage to the relationship between the conference and Notre Dame,” Bevacqua said.

“We didn’t like the fact that we were repeatedly singled out and compared to Miami, not by Miami, but it did raise a lot of eyebrows here that the conference was taking shots at us… People might not agree with us, but it’s just not something we wouldn’t be comfortable with.”

Notre Dame, which has won its last 10 games after an 0-2 start that included a loss to Miami, was ahead of the Hurricanes throughout the College Football Playoff standings until Miami edged out the Fighting Irish on Sunday to win the final at-large bid.

The Irish joined the ACC in all sports except football and hockey in 2013 and agreed in 2014 to play five football games against ACC opponents each season to complete their schedule.

The official ACC Football account on

The ACC Network also rebroadcast Miami’s season-opening victory over Notre Dame at least 13 times in the days leading up to the CFP field announcement.

The ACC would have been shut out of the field — and missed out on a significant amount of money — if Miami hadn’t made it because of Duke’s five-loss conference championship win.