Greg McElroy 'sick to my stomach' over Notre Dame being left out of College Football Playoff

After weeks of anticipation about whether or not Miami or Notre Dame would be the last at-large team in the College Football Playoff, the decision was made last Sunday afternoon. Hurricanes in. Fighting Irish out.

Miami, thanks in part to its 27-24 win over the Fighting Irish on Aug. 31, jumped Notre Dame in the final CFP Rankings to make its first-ever College Football Playoff appearance. Notre Dame was the First Team Out and was reportedly tabbed for a Pop-Tarts Bowl matchup against BYU before announcing it would be skipping the postseason.

Notre Dame fans were shocked and appalled that Miami jumped the Irish, as they had been ranked ahead of the Hurricanes in the five previous College Football Playoff Ranking iterations. Although neither team lost a game, Mario Cristobal‘s team leaped ahead of Notre Dame at the last second and kept the Irish from making their second consecutive CFP appearance.

Greg McElroy was not a fan of Notre Dame missing the CFP

During the latest episode of ‘Always College Football,’ ESPN‘s Greg McElroy voiced his displeasure for the decision. McElroy revealed that he was sick to his stomach following Notre Dame‘s exclusion from the Playoff.

“In all seriousness, I’m sick to my stomach about Notre Dame (being left out of the College Football Playoff),” McElroy said. “The thing that has frustrated me so much is people are citing 2023 (Florida State snub) as a reference. People are citing 2015 (Iowa snub) as a reference. People are citing yesteryear and citing all these ‘Well, they were inconsistent with this and how come it didn’t apply here?’ In the 12-team Playoff era, compared to the four-team Playoff era, you had to thread the needle (in the four-team Playoff). We’re comparing teams with no warts.

“Now in the 12-team Playoff era, you’re comparing teams that are obviously flawed. The reasonings for why they’re flawed (or from their fanbase why they’re not flawed) are more of a reach than they were in the four-team era. So I feel like the debate has even gotten stronger more than ever before, because if you didn’t win your Conference Championship in the four-team era, you were kind of lie ‘alright I get it’. Now it’s like ‘hold on, they didn’t do this and they didn’t do that’.”

Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua claims Irish were ‘targeted’ by ACC

Notre Dame Athletic Director Pete Bevacqua used his media opportunity on Tuesday to claim that his program was ‘definitely being targeted’ by the ACC in the weeks leading up to the College Football Playoff selection show. Due to Miami‘s win over Notre Dame, the ACC’s social media accounts campaigned hard for the Hurricanes to sneak into the Playoff over the program they defeated. This occurred, leading Bevacqua to call foul.

“We were definitely being targeted,” Bevacqua said. “For better and for worse, we have a different relationship with the ACC than any other team in college football, other than the teams in the ACC. We’re in the ACC for 24 sports. We have a scheduling agreement with the ACC, and again, the ACC does wonderful things for Notre Dame. We bring tremendous football value to the ACC, and we didn’t understand why you’d go out of your way to try and damage us in the process.”

Miami will now prepare for its First Round clash at Texas A&M. Meanwhile, Notre Dame licks its wounds and prepares for next season after opting out of bowl play.