ESPN's Matt Barrie shreds Notre Dame for declining bowl invitation, invokes Lou Holtz

Emotions are high today in South Bend, with Notre Dame now opting out of the bowl season after not being selected to be in the College Football Playoff. However, ESPN’s Matt Barrie doesn’t feel that’s the reaction that they’re allowed to have to today’s decision.

Barrie spoke on the Fighting Irish’s choice to opt out of a bowl appearance after officially missing the playoff this afternoon on ESPN during ‘Championship Drive’, which aired during the aftermath of the announcement of the CFP. He thought that this was unbecoming of a program that’s as known as they are, with him having an easy, yet known, answer to how they can avoid this outcome in the future.

“Allow me to devil’s advocate all the devils up here. You are the University of Notre Dame! You are a brand in college football. You are one of the founding fathers of what makes this sport great. You should not have the right to do this as a team,” said Barrie. “And, if you want to figure it out, and you don’t want to opt out of the bowl game as the University of Notre Dame, I can fix this whole thing with you with one phone call – ‘Hi, can we join your conference?'”

“You cannot be an independent, control your own schedule and then pout when you don’t get in because you don’t have the conference championship at your weight,” said Barrie.

At that point, Barrie did his best impression of Ryan Day. He asked where Lou Holtz was, as we wanted to know what he thought about this decision since made by Notre Dame.

“Someone get Lou Holtz on a phone,” Barrie added. “I want to hear what Lou Holtz has to say about this.”

As of the reveal earlier today, Notre Dame (10-2) fell out of the field instead for Miami (10-2). Neither team played another game this weekend, but, as explained by the committee, the result of the Big 12 Championship caused the Fighting Irish and Hurricanes to now be directly compared to one another, with that head-to-head result from the season opener finally winning out as the final at-large spot went to The ‘U.

With that, Notre Dame has since responded how you’d expect, with plenty of frustration after stunningly falling from the CFP. That’s now since gone another step into the rest of the postseason, as they’ve since decided to end their own season and not take the field again for a bowl game.

This was Notre Dame taking their ball and going home after not earning a spot in the College Football Playoff. And, regardless of whether you think they should’ve been in or out, Barrie thought that choice, and message sent because of it, was the wrong one by the Irish.