‘Farce’ – Kirk Herbstreit demands CFP change as powerhouse takes immediate action and fans call for extended boycott

The College Football Playoff field is set, and all hell has broken loose.

A total of 12 teams will battle it out for a shot at the National Championship, but all the talk is around one school that missed out.

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Notre Dame, last season’s finalists, did not make the cut.

The Fighting Irish (10-2), won 10-straight games after a slow start, but watched college football‘s championship weekend from afar.

As an idle independent, Notre Dame had no option to impress the selection committee one last time before the decision was made.

The Irish had made the top 10 of every CFP rankings before decision day on Sunday, when they slotted in at No. 11.

It seems head-to-head results ultimately decided the field, as Notre Dame were the first team out.

Miami, which beat the Irish in Week 1, moved ahead at the eleventh hour to fill the final at-large berth – having been placed behind them for each of the preceding weeks of rankings.

The snub stunned the college football world, and led to the Irish announcing almost immediately that they would decline a bowl game invite.

“My feelings and the feelings here are just shock and, really, an absolute sense of sadness for our student-athletes,” Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua said.

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

He added that any college football rankings published ahead of the final ones are a ‘farce and total waste of time.’

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Full College Football Playoff bracket

Notre Dame did not make the CFP cut, but 12 other teams did. Check out the full bracket below.

First round:
No. 9 Alabama at No. 8 Oklahoma
No. 10 Miami at No. 7 Texas A&M
No. 11 Tulane at No. 6 Ole Miss
No. 12 James Madison at No. 5 Oregon

Quarterfinals:
Cotton Bowl: No. 10 Miami or No. 7 Texas A&M vs No. 2 Ohio State
Orange Bowl: No. 12 James Madison or No. 5 Oregon vs No. 4 Texas Tech
Rose Bowl: No. 9 Alabama or No. 8 Oklahoma vs No. 1 Indiana
Sugar Bowl: No. 11 Tulane or No. 6 Ole Miss vs No. 3 Georgia

Semifinals:
Fiesta Bowl: Sugar Bowl winner vs Cotton Bowl winner
Peach Bowl: Orange Bowl winner vs Rose Bowl winner

National championship (Monday, January 19):
Fiesta Bowl winner vs Peach Bowl winner

College football world reacts to Fighting Irish shock

Plenty of high-profile analysts shared their thoughts on Notre Dame’s snub too.

On Sunday evening, sportscaster and former Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Kirk Herbstreit called for playoff reform.

He believes expanding the field would help ensure these kinds of situations are avoided in future.

“It’d be great if we had 16 teams. Maybe that’s the next answer to get this thing up to 16 teams,” he said.

Nick Saban, meanwhile, suggested that the automatic bids awarded to champions of smaller conferences should be reconsidered.

“This has got to be devastating for Notre Dame’s team, not to get an opportunity to play in the playoffs,” the legendary Alabama coach said.

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“We can learn something from this that will help us come up with a little better criteria of trying to make sure we get the best 12 teams in the playoff.”

Veteran broadcaster Dick Vitale was also furious.

“Absolutely a JOKE that (Notre Dame) is not part of the College Football Playoff. The Irish have dominated 10 in a row after a heartbreaking 1 point loss to (Texas A&M). What football is the committee watching, somebody tell me please,” he wrote on X.

Dave Portnoy, meanwhile, described the CFP as ‘rigged’.

College football fans take drastic action after playoff snub

It’s not just analysts who are up in arms, with plenty of Irish fans announcing a ‘boycott’ of the CFP.

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“Notre dame just got royally screwed. Everyone needs to boycott the College Football Playoff because of this injustice,” one wrote on X.

“I am totally disgusted with the College Football Playoff selections. For the first time a three loss team is in… Notre Dame, who lost the first two games by a total of four points stays home. Let’s all boycott the playoffs!!” another wrote.

A third wrote: “If the rest of college football were to boycott ALL the bowl games to prove a point to the NCAA, ESPN and the terrible playoff committee, it would be so awesome!”

Some other fans sided with the burned Notre Dame, deeming the boycott ‘a justified protest against a broken system.’

Regardless of a viewer boycott or not, this years CFP will go ahead as planned, without the Irish. But such is the outcry over their omission, that things could change moving forward.

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