Notre Dame AD says ACC did ‘permanent damage’ to their relationship with CFP campaigning

As Miami ramped up its campaign to qualify for the College Football Playoff, the Hurricanes received an assist from the ACC. And that didn’t sit well with Notre Dame, as Miami’s selection came at the expense of the Fighting Irish.

Appearing on Monday’s episode of The Dan Patrick Show, Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua addressed Notre Dame’s snub. And in doing so, the Fighting Irish AD stated that the ACC had done “permanent damage” to its relationship with the school, which includes a football scheduling agreement and membership in 24 non-football sports.

“We were mystified by the actions of the conference, to attack their biggest business partner, really, in football and a member conference in 24 of our other sports,” Bevacqua said of the conference after specifying that his issues were with any of the ACC’s schools. “I wouldn’t be honest with you if I didn’t say that they have certainly done permanent damage to the relationship between the conference and Notre Dame.”

Patrick followed up by asking what Bevacqua meant by that. And although he didn’t offer specifics regarding the potential fallout, he did further explain why the Fighting Irish are so unhappy with the league.

“We didn’t appreciate the fact that we were singled out repeatedly and compared to Miami,” Bevacqua said. “Miami has every right to do that. But it raised a lot of eyebrows here that the conference was taking shots at us. That’s just not something that we chose to do, we wouldn’t choose to do in the future. Some people might disagree with us, but that’s just not something that we’d be comfortable with.”

“We were mystified by the actions of the conference… They have certainly done permanent damage to the relationship between the conference and Notre Dame.”

– Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua on their relationship with the ACC. pic.twitter.com/uvpWqrU8PM

— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) December 8, 2025

While ACC commissioner Jim Phillips did actively campaign for the Hurricanes in the days leading up to Sunday’s selection show, the reality is the conference was in a tough spot. Not only was Notre Dame the primary team Miami was vying for one of the final at-large spots against, but the Hurricanes’ Week 1 victory over the Fighting Irish served as perhaps their best argument for making the field.

Factor in that the nature of the ACC Championship Game — which was won by 7-5 Duke — threatened to leave the league without any representative in the 12-team playoff, and it’s not a surprise that the conference opted to side with Miami. Still, that didn’t sit right with Notre Dame, which has since declined to participate in any bowl game this postseason.

As for the potential fallout between the school and the conference, that remains to be seen. But it’s worth noting that Bevacqua has already called a press conference to take place at 12 p.m. ET on Tuesday, which appears to be in relation to the Fighting Irish’s snub.