Pete Bevacqua continues to blast CFP process after Notre Dame snub: ‘It hurts worse today than yesterday’

Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua continued to decline biting his tongue on Monday. He called out the College Football Playoff selection process after the Irish were left out of the 12-team field. 

Speaking to ESPN’s Heather Dinich, Bevacqua described a deepening frustration inside the program following Sunday’s final rankings reveal. It dropped Notre Dame out of contention despite entering the weekend at No. 10.

“When asked how he felt this morning, he said, ‘Worse, and it’s going to get worse and worse,’” 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.”

Alas, the frustration stems from how the final weekend unfolded. Notre Dame, idle for the weekend, had consistently been ranked ahead of Miami despite losing head-to-head in Week 1.

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.

Notre Dame has ‘a collective feeling that we were all just punched in the stomach’

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.”

Bevacqua went even further, condemning the weekly CFP rankings as misleading: “Any rankings or show prior to this last one is an absolute joke and a waste of time,” he said. “Why put these young student-athletes through these false emotions just to pull the rug out from underneath them and shatter their dreams without explanation? We feel like the Playoff was stolen from our student-athletes.”

Later on, Notre Dame announced it would decline a bowl invitation as a result of the matter. According to On3’s Brett McMurphy, the Irish were slated to face BYU in the Pop-Tarts Bowl before opting out.

“As a team, we’ve decided to withdraw our name from consideration for a bowl game,” the program said in a statement. “We appreciate all the support from our families and fans, and we’re hoping to bring the 12th national title to South Bend in 2026.”

For Bevacqua and Notre Dame, the sting isn’t fading. Instead, it’s deepening. In their eyes, the system failed them at the worst possible moment. An unbelievable result after a 10-2 season. 

— On3’s Dan Morrison contributed to this article.