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Emmanuel Acho puts Notre Dame on blast for skipping bowl game: 'Cowardly, immature and pathetic'

Chandler Vesselsby: Chandler Vessels12 hours agoChandlerVessels

Emmanuel Acho has strong opinions about Notre Dame declining to play in a bowl game and aired them out Sunday on social media. The Fighting Irish dropped one spot in the final College Football Rankings, allowing Miami to claim the final at-large berth in the 12-team field.

Shortly after the CFP bracket was announced, Notre Dame revealed that it would not play in a bowl as retaliation for being left out. It would have faced BYU in the Pop Tarts Bowl, according to On3’s Brett McMurphy.

Acho, who played college football at Texas, was vehemently against the decision from the Fighting Irish. He laid out several reasons why in a video clip posted to X.

“Cowardly, immature and pathetic from Notre Dame,” Acho said. “Withdrawing from a bowl game because you didn’t get into the College Football Playoff even though your team is 10-2? Cowardly, immature. You robbed seniors of their final football game of their career. You robbed underclassmen of three more weeks of development on field. Furthermore, you robbed your fan base of another exciting and thrilling game because you didn’t get into the bowl game you wanted.”

Notre Dame had been ranked ahead of Miami ever since the first College Football Playoff rankings were released in Week 10. The Fighting Irish were also at No. 10 in the penultimate rankings while the Hurricanes were No. 12.

No. 11 BYU losing in the Big 12 Championship allowed Miami to move up a spot and then it became a comparison between them and Notre Dame for the committee. It seems as if the head-to-head results from Week 1, where the Hurricanes defeated the Fighting Irish by a score of 27-24, allowed Miami to move up.

Acho understands the disappointment of not being able to compete for a national championship. However, at the same time, he also remembers that from his personal experience playing college football.

He believes the pain can actually make a team hungrier to go out and perform well not only in the bowl game, but also heading into the following season. That was the case for him, as Texas made the BCS Championship in 2009 after missing it in 2008.

“You’re not the first team and you won’t be the last team,” he said. “My freshman year, Oklahoma went to the national championship game with one loss even though we had one loss and we beat Oklahoma. It happens. You build resiliency. The next year I went to the national championship game. It happens, Notre Dame. Everybody can’t go to the dance. Also, how are you going to complain and moan about not being able to go to the dance when you ain’t even have no great wins all season? It ain’t like you was undefeated. Let’s be real here.”

Perhaps more than the rest of his points, Acho believes this sets a “terrible precedent” for other teams that miss the College Football Playoff in future seasons. Bowl games have already become increasingly more irrelevant in the CFP era, and this doesn’t help that at all.

“Last thing I’m gonna say is this states and sets a terrible precedent in college football,” he said. “We’ve got 10-win teams turning down bowl games now. This is something children do, something kids do when kids don’t get what they want so they just sit in a corner and pout. Pathetic, bro.”