College football playoffs leaving out Notre Dame irritates legendary quarterback

The College Football Playoff bracket was revealed Sunday, and officials sparked controversy when the Notre Dame Fighting Irish were left out despite having just two losses: one to the Miami Hurricanes and the other to the Texas A&M Aggies.

Both the Hurricanes and Aggies came in at field 12. Miami edged out Notre Dame in the final rankings even though the Fighting Irish were in the field when the next-to-last rankings were released. Neither team had a conference championship game left before the official field was cleared.

The debate about Notre Dame and Miami was one that raged in recent weeks. Who would enter the Playoff? Miami had the overall head-to-head advantage.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

Former Notre Dame star quarterback Joe Theismann told Fox News Digital he was “in disbelief” when he saw the Fighting Irish out of the huddle. He added that experts who talk about the College Football Playoffs are missing one question: How does a three-loss Alabama Crimson Tide team make the postseason?

“How can they be so wrong? I find it hard to believe that you are going to put a team with three losses in the playoffs,” he said. “Is Miami going to get in? Okay. Notre Dame should have gotten in. Now all of a sudden, you're going to turn the conversation into a head-to-head competition in the first game of the year? Well, what about Alabama getting beat by Florida State in the first game of the year? Nobody mentioned that? That wasn't part of the conversation? I think that's really bad.”

In the end, Theismann felt bad for head coach Marcus Freeman and the players he coaches and noted that Notre Dame didn't have a bad loss.

The Fighting Irish lost to the Hurricanes and Aggies by a combined four points. Alabama, on the other hand, was throttled by Florida State in the first game of the season and then lost to the Oklahoma Sooners by two.

Notre Dame QB Joe Theismann (7) in action against USC at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles on November 30, 1968. (Walter Iooss Jr./Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)

INDIANA GETS TOP BILLING IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF AS MIAMI TAKES THE FIELD

Alabama made it to the SEC Championship, but lost by 21 points to Georgia.

“I feel like I'm a person who tries to be really objective when it comes to analyzing situations,” Theismann said. “Alabama being in this doesn't make sense.”

College Football Playoff Committee Chairman Hunter Yurachek, who is also the athletic director at Arkansas, which also plays in the SEC, defended Alabama's spot as the No. 9 school during the selection show. He said the Crimson Tide's “body of work” was enough to get them in.

“Despite their performance yesterday in the conference championship, they deserved to take ninth place,” he said.

Yurachek added that the committee flipped Miami over Notre Dame after BYU lost to Texas Tech in the Big 12 Championship, 34-7.

“Once we put Miami ahead of BYU, we had that side-by-side comparison that everyone had been looking forward to, Notre Dame and Miami,” he said. “And when you look at those two teams on paper, they're almost the same, as far as their schedule, common opponents, results against common opponents, but the only metric we had to turn to was head-to-head.”

Tulane and James Madison were the other conference champions to take the field. Duke, the ACC champions, were not selected.

Notre Dame decided to forgo the opportunity to play in a bowl game after falling out of the College Football Playoff. Theismann said he had no problem with the decision.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman (center) leads the team onto the field to play the Pittsburgh Panthers at Acrisure Stadium on Nov. 15, 2025. (Charles LeClaire/Image Images)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“Not at all,” he told Fox News Digital. “I respect and admire the decision.”

Follow Fox News Digital sports coverage in X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.