Pete Bevacqua explains why Notre Dame opted out of bowl game, reveals if it will impact future years

Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua explained why they opted out of a bowl game this year, but mentioned this was solely for this year’s squad. Based on the team’s emotions and feelings towards playing another game, it was in the best interest of everyone to end the season.

It wasn’t straight from Bevacqua or head coach Marcus Freeman. Bevacqua said he applauded the players for making a tough decision that wasn’t going to be universally praised.

“That’s a great question and the team making the decision not to play in this year’s bowl was a decision solely isolated to this year,” Bevacqua said. “We can’t speak for future years, we can’t speak for what the captains on the team feel like, the nature of the season. Maybe you started the season strong and fell off and here is a way to turn the corner and reignite and springboard you into the next year. Maybe one year you have an unbelievably young team and you want to start that maturation process for the next year. 

“But this year, this was a team that had national championship aspirations, this was a team that was unbelievably close knit. And in the crazy world of major college football emotions, you find out you’re not in the CFP and you’re shocked. Then you get a call ‘hey do you want to go play in this bowl game?’ Marcus places a ton of emphasis on the roles of the captain of the team … these aren’t just the letter ‘C’ pasted onto a jersey … they have a real role in our team and the decisions our team makes.”

Bevacqua mentioned how Freeman didn’t want to make the decision for everyone. After talking to his players, everyone made the best decision for Notre Dame, in their minds.

“What he did is reached out to the captains … but let’s not make an emotional decision, let’s take a deep breath. Now granted, you don’t have a week to take a breath, you have a couple of hours,” Bevacqua said. “The unanimous message that came back was ‘we are such a close team,’ that they wanted to make sure the last team that took the field … was the same team that got off the plane in Miami. They didn’t feel it was right for this team to go out there and not be that full team that has been so close together … That was the decision. It was a decision that I applaud and it was a hard decision and I think they knew it was going to be a decision that not everyone was going to love. But it was the right decision for this team at this moment, I’m positive of that.”

Bevacqua once again noted this type of decision would not be every year. It was specific to this year’s Notre Dame team, not necessarily for 2026 and beyond.