Notre Dame have stunned the college football fraternity by declining consideration for a postseason bowl game.

The decision is seen by many as retaliation for being omitted from the final 12 schools selected for the College Football Playoff, a shock in itself given the Fighting Irish’s strong season and unbeaten 10-game finish. The selection committee’s decision to include Alabama and Miami — neither of whom earned an automatic berth by winning their conference — comes less than 12 months after Notre Dame appeared in the 2025 National Championship Game against eventual champions Ohio State.

Ranked sixth in the AP preseason poll, the Irish never quite lived up to that prediction after a tough start that saw them lose to both Miami and Texas A&M — the latter remaining unbeaten until their final SEC matchup — but steady improvement with rookie QB C.J. Carr under centre resulted in multiple double-digit wins and elevation into the playoff spots. In the final week of the regular season, however, Notre Dame were pushed down to #10 in the rankings, despite winning their final game, while Alabama jumped ahead of them after defeating Auburn in the Iron Bowl.

Miami at this point remained at 12, and on the bubble with schools such as BYU looking for a way in with victory in their conference championship game. As it turned out, the Cougars were beaten handily by Texas Tech, but the biggest question mark hovered over ‘Bama’s ability to retain ninth spot despite being blown out by Georgia in the SEC title matchup. Miami too were moved above Notre Dame, who do not get the benefit of a conference championship game, pushing the Irish into the final two spots — which were always likely to be awarded to the fourth- and fifth-ranked conference champions — in this case Tulane and James Madison — which are guaranteed spots in the playoff by rule.

In the end, it was the opening week 27-24 defeat in Miami that undid Notre Dame, with CFP selection committee chair Hunter Yurachek insisting that the result remained the only viable means of splitting the teams. He also explained that Alabama deserved to retain the ninth berth, despite being the only three-loss team in the final 12 and losing to unranked Florida State on opening weekend, because of a ‘body of work’ that included victory over Georgia in regular season play.

“We had that side-by-side comparison and you look at those two teams on paper and they are almost equal,” Yurachek said, overlooking the yawning gap between Miami and Notre Dame in previous rankings. “Almost equal in their schedule strength, their common opponents, the results against common opponents. The one metric we had to fall back on was head-to-head.”

With ESPN’s $1bn deal with the conferences for exclusive rights to the playoff process demanding six rankings shows in the buildup to the final selection, calls for ‘false hope’ programming will undoubtedly fall on deaf ears. Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua called the shows ‘a farce’ as he explained the feelings of devatation upon hearing of the Irish’s omission.

“My feelings, and the feelings here, are just shock and, really, an absolute sense of sadness for our student-athletes,” Bevacqua told Yahoo Sports on Sunday. “Overwhelming shock and sadness. Like a collective feeling that we were all just punched in the stomach.

“There is no explanation that could possibly be given to explain the outcome. As I said to [head coach] Marcus [Freeman], one thing is for sure: Any rankings or show prior to this last one is an absolute joke and a waste of time. Why put these young student-athletes through these false emotions just to pull the rug out from underneath them having not played a game in two weeks and … shatter their dreams without explanation? [There’s] an utter disbelief and sadness from our student athletes, who were led to believe since the CFP rankings started of what they needed to do and did everything they were asked to do. We feel like the playoff was stolen from our student-athletes.”

While both Iowa State and Kansas State have declined bowl game invitations having lost their head coaches at the end of the season — and will be fined for their decisions — Notre Dame will escape such punishment as an independent. Their reputation will continue to take a battering on social media, however.

“As a team, we’ve decided to withdraw our name from consideration for a bowl game following the 2025 season,” the school confirmed in a statement. “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.”