Stephen A. Smith lashes out at Notre Dame College Football Playoff stipulation

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish were on the outside looking in for this season’s College Football Playoff, getting jumped by Miami and finishing behind Alabama when it came to selection Sunday. With two losses to ranked teams, the committee didn’t believe in the Fighting Irish’s resume.

That led them to end their season and not participate in a bowl game. But now, with a new stipulation, the Fighting Irish have put themsleves in good spot for future playoffs.

Beginning in 2026, the Fighting Irish will receive an automatic bid into the playoff if they are ranked in the top 12. They will not be bumped for an auto qualifier. It’s a great rule for the Fighting Irish as it goes into effect right away. However, not everyone is happy with this.

Stephen A. Smith sounds off on Notre Dame

Among those who aren’t happy with this new rule is ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith. He made his feelings known on Friday morning as well as part of “First Take”. Here is what Smith had to say about the Fighting Irish.

“The reason why I’m ticked off is because what the hell is this about Notre Dame?” Smith asked. “Why do we got a separate category for Notre Dame? What makes them so damn special? I’m really getting sick of this Notre Dame fawning. Who the hell are they? The Fighting Irish? Whatever. I love Marcus Freeman. Love him. Love him. Great coach, and I respect Notre Dame. I want to state for the record that I think they should have been in the postseason. I get it. They were clearly one of the top-12 teams in the nation.”

“But, when people are complaining about Alabama being ahead of them, Alabama went to Athens and beat Georgia on the road weeks earlier. Yeah, they got stomped in the SEC Championship Game by Georgia a few weeks later, but they were pretty banged up at that particular moment in time. They played a conference championship game. What was Notre Dame doing? They were at home sitting on the couch. Why? Because they’re not a member of a conference.

He continues the rant by talking about the ACC and Notre Dame’s complaints that the conference didn’t fight for them. He then ends it by calling them out for not joining a conference.

“They had a member to be a member of a conference, but their AD (Pete Bevacqua) sat there moaning about how the ACC Commissioner (Jim Phillips) didn’t speak up for Notre Dame but spoke up for Miami. Well, you’ve got about 25 sports. About 23 are in the ACC, but you pull football out because you want to keep the bag for yourself. So, you want the bag and want them to talk highly of you even though you won’t associate your football programs with the conference because you want to keep the bag all for yourself. And then, when you don’t make the Playoff, you want to blame everybody else instead of looking into the mirror. This is sickening. Get your ass in a conference and compete like everybody else.”

For Notre Dame, this is all noise. They got the clause they wanted and with a favorable schedule ahead, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t make the College Football Playoff in 2026. Anything less than that is a failure.

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