Critics of the College Football Playoffs will often cite the somewhat arbitrary and wholly subjective nature that the committee selects the playoff field as a criticism.
It’s a tale as old as college football itself, especially in the prior Bowl Championship Series format, where you’d often end up with three “top” teams vying for the two spots in the championship game.
In fact, the entire impetus for the current CFP playoff system was to avoid such controversies.
To the surprise of nobody, it only engendered more controversy, as now you would have 13 or 14 teams vying for a dozen spots.
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish were one of those teams on the outside looking in this year, as the final CFP ranking slotted in the University of Miami over Notre Dame.
Without getting into the nitty-gritty details like head-to-head records and strength of schedule, there were essentially four teams vying for the final two spots: The University of Alabama, Brigham Young University, Notre Dame, and Miami.
Miami and Alabama got in.
BYU and Notre Dame did not.
That means that Notre Dame and BYU were slated to play in the utterly bizarre Pop-Tarts Bowl.
Only that game will now feature BYU and Georgia Tech, because Notre Dame — seemingly in a huff — withdrew its players from the Pop-Tarts Bowl.
The team announced the decision shortly after the CFP snub:
pic.twitter.com/TyzavvzpC1
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) December 7, 2025
“As a team, we’ve decided to withdraw our name from consideration for a bowl game following the 2025 season,” the Sunday announcement read.
It continued: “We appreciate all the support from our families and fans, and we’re hoping to bring the 12th national title to South Bend in 2026.”
The backlash in the comments was noticeable — and intense:
To our fans:
From this day forward, The Fighting Irish will simply be known as The Irish
There’s no fight left in us
-ND
— shockermandan, CPA, CFA (@shockermandan) December 7, 2025
“To our fans: From this day forward, The Fighting Irish will simply be known as The Irish. There’s no fight left in us,” one X user posted, mercilessly reinterpreting the Notre Dame statement.
This is a soft and arrogant way to embrace the consolation prize.
And for a team like Notre Dame, that arrogance is exactly why you’re on the outside looking in.
Join a conference — or keep dealing with consequences you’re not going to enjoy.
— Ryan C. Fowler (@RyanCFowler) December 7, 2025
“This is a soft and arrogant way to embrace the consolation prize,” one X user posted. “And for a team like Notre Dame, that arrogance is exactly why you’re on the outside looking in.”
There were also countless other X comments, renaming “The Fighting Irish” as “The Crying Irish” or “The Fleeing Irish.”
The College Football Playoffs — sans Notre Dame — officially kicks off on Dec. 19.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post Notre Dame Sparks Firestorm of Backlash After Team Picks Up Football and Goes Home appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.