Kirk Herbstreit questions how much Marcus Freeman was involved in Notre Dame opting out of a bowl game

After opening the season with back-to-back losses before rattling off 10 consecutive wins to close out the regular season, Notre Dame was the first team left out of the 12-team College Football Playoff field. In protest of this decision, the Fighting Irish turned down a postseason bid and will not play in a bowl game for the first time since 2016.

The move came with a boatload of criticism from other college football fans, who lambasted Notre Dame for thinking too highly of itself to sit out of a non-College Football Playoff bowl game. Per On3’s Brett McMurphy, the Irish were slated to clash against No. 12 BYU (the second team out of the Playoff field) in the Pop-Tarts Bowl. That spot ended up going to No. 22 Georgia Tech instead.

On the latest episode of ‘Nonstop‘ featuring Kirk Herbstreit and Joey Galloway, Herbstreit wondered just how much pull Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman had in deciding to skip the postseason.

“Without knowing all the details behind closed doors and what came to that decision, you (directed at Joey Galloway) know Marcus Freeman pretty well. He’s not one to not want to play a game of any kind, let alone having a chance to go out and play one more with his team, that had a great year,” Herbstreit said. “I gotta think the administration got involved in that and just on principle of thinking they got the short end of the stick. They were like, ‘if we’re not in the Playoff, we’re out’.”

“If that was the logic, I’m not in favor of that. Unless the players said ‘we don’t want to play’, maybe that went down. However it went down, I’m not a fan of it. They had a great year. I know they felt like they should have been in the Playoff, and I would have loved to seen them in the Playoff. They were a better team than a year ago, when they made it all the way to the national title before they came up short against Ohio State. I think they’re better.”

Without coming out and openly saying it, Herbstreit alluded to Notre Dame‘s administration being the driving force behind skipping the postseason. For now, however, Freeman (who just announced that he would be returning to the program in 2026 amid NFL coaching rumors) and the Irish will look to return to the College Football Playoff next season.