Pat McAfee denies perception of ESPN being anti-Notre Dame after CFP snub

Pat McAfee denied ESPN was anti-Notre Dame amid the snubbing of the Fighting Irish in the College Football Playoff. Since the CFP is ESPN owned with television rights, many starting connecting dots that the network had a bias against the school.

Notre Dame and Miami ended up being the final two teams up for debate for the final at-large bid in the CFP. So, with Miami beating Notre Dame earlier this year, the Hurricanes got the nod to get into the field.

Some accused ESPN of being anti-Notre Dame because of this and also slammed the committee for putting the Irish ahead of the Hurricanes all year until the final weekend. Paul Finebaum was among those critics. But McAfee denied the network had an agenda against the Irish

“Why wouldn’t they want Notre Dame when they can’t get Notre Dame any other time?” McAfee said, via Awful Announcing. “They can only get Notre Dame in the playoffs. Can’t get Notre Dame any other time. (Their school) has its own TV deal with NBC because of how powerful it is. [College GameDay] started the College Football Playoff at (their place) last year.

“Literally launched the entire thing at Notre Dame. Why? Because ESPN could get a Notre Dame game. [ESPN president] Jimmy Pitaro’s kid goes to Notre Dame, I think. He’s the head of (expletive) ESPN. I was watching that whole think unfold and I was like, ‘OK, alright. You don’t think we want to go there?”

The Fighting Irish have since opted out of a bowl game, despite being 10-2 and bound for an upper tier bowl outside of the CFP. AD Pete Bevacqua has also gone off since Sunday, claiming the injustice done to Notre Dame.

“When asked how he felt this morning, he said, ‘Worse, and it’s going to get worse and worse,’” ESPN’s Heather Dinich relayed on Get Up. Bevacqua told her the players and coaches were “led to believe, in each and every CFP ranking, that they would have the chance to compete for a national championship. 

“That was taken from them without any rationale or acceptable explanation. That all hurts worse today than it did yesterday. Everyone has said that we’re one of about two to three teams that could win it. Now we have a 0% chance of proving that.”

But with BYU’s loss in the Big 12 Championship Game, the Hurricanes slid into a direct comparison with the Irish. That allowed the head-to-head tiebreaker to finally take effect. Meanwhile, Alabama remained at No. 9 even after losing the SEC title game, crowding the at-large picture further.

The outcome apparently blindsided Bevacqua and the Irish administration: “My feelings and the feelings here are just shock. Really, an absolute sense of sadness for our student-athletes,” he told Yahoo Sports on Sunday. 

“Overwhelming shock and sadness. Like a collective feeling that we were all just punched in the stomach.”

Stephen Samra contributed to this report