December 7, 2025
by site owner Todd Helmick (BIO)

COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS - MAKING SENSE OF IT ALL
NOTRE DAME LEFT OUT

Another college football/basketball tournament pairing season has come and those left out are complaining. This year the Irish eyes are not smiling. Notre Dame got left out of the 12 team playoff format this year as decided by the College Football Playoff Committee. The disgust in South Bend was so severe that Notre Dame opted out of playing in a bowl game at all. Really can't blame them, the Irish have a legit beef. Three teams were vying for that last playoff spot...Miami, Alabama and Notre Dame.

Most logical folks don't seem to have a problem with Miami getting in since they beat the Irish head-to-head. My head scratcher is how three loss Alabama got in over Notre Dame. Granted the Crimson Tide played a way more difficult schedule. But they did lose to a very poor Florida State team and you could see the Tide was taking on water to close out the season. Their offense has sputtered down the stretch and they got dismantled in the SEC Championship game to a Georgia team that albeit has the best defense in the country right now next to Indiana and Ohio State.

However, Alabama has always been at the forefront of championship selection day debates. The joke has always been, long before this current playoff system came into existence, that Alabama had to lose three games to be left out of any postseason discussion when only a two or four team format was the playoff standard. Now even three losses aren't enough. For as much as Alabama coaching legend Nick Saban deserves respect, he is always the one on ESPN this selection day whining about how his Alabama team deserves to get in. And it's been going on for nearly a decade. Saban is the one who in 2023 during his last season coaching, clamored for 48 straight hours that his Alabama team deserved to be in the playoffs after beating undefeated Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. He is also the same guy who claims the SEC Championship Game loss to Georgia this year shouldn't count. ESPN pundit Kirk Herbstreit followed his buddy Saban's logic. Only Alabama has a rule where the conference championship game counts if you win but doesn't if you lose. They lost to Georgia 28-7 this year. The game was never close. It absolutely should count. But it didn't as the Tide got in the playoff anyway while Notre Dame is left to only wonder.

Make no mistake: ESPN is financially invested in the SEC. As in fully invested. The nation's biggest college sports media outlet isn't about to permit their investment to be outdone by another entity. That is the world we live in. That is the world where Alabama and the SEC gets exclusive inclusion. Even a gigantic name like Notre Dame with their NBC partner isn't void from being left behind this investment. Anyone who claims otherwise is living in complete denial.

If Todd Helmick had a vote, Miami and Notre Dame gets in the playoffs. Alabama was the last team out.

Nonetheless, in college basketball, 68 teams make the tournament come March Madness. Team #69 and #70 are outraged they didn't make the cut. When college football quickly moves to a 16 team format, team #17 and #18 are going to be outraged.

PLAYING DEVIL'S ADVOCATE - VANDERBILT
Put two loss Notre Dame's resume up against two loss Vanderbilt and the Commodores deserve the nod. Vandy had the better data (Strength of Schedule and Strength of Record) but Notre Dame benefited from brand recognition and a more dominant late-season run against inferior competition. The committee favored Notre Dame's bias, even though Vandy's metrics were superior and this small private school from Nashville is lead by Heisman candidate quarterback Diego Pavia.

NOTRE DAME GOT WHAT IT ASKED FOR
The Irish have commanded special preference that they be allowed to join a conference in all sports but football dating all the way back to 1995. First from the Big East and now for the past 13 years in the ACC. Notre Dame demands its exclusive Independence in football with the same benefits every conference is afforded. They want their own NBC contract. They want the scheduling and financial benefits that come with playing in a conference for all the other sports. They don't want to share their football money. Well, it bit Notre Dame today. Not being in a conference left them high and dry. If they were in the ACC for all sports, the Irish would have had the chance like everyone else to play Virginia in the Championship Game and earn their way into the playoffs. Instead, they choose to not be involved in Conference Championship Games while claiming those that do don't belong if they lose in that game. The Irish made their own selfish bed alone in greed, now they can sleep alone in it this postseason.

G5 INCLUSION
Anyone clamoring for the Tulane and James Madison teams of the world to be not included in the process are out of line and don't see the big picture. OK, so both of those teams getting in a 12 team format...that's valid to argue otherwise. This situation was only compounded by five loss Duke winning the ACC title game - a rule that has to be changed. That's how JMU snuck in the back door. One of those G5 teams getting in however, is good for the sport and the right thing to do. All those G5 teams not in the P4 (Power 4) conferences ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC make up more than half of Division I football. Yea, they deserve to have at least one team guaranteed. To not do so would be the equivalent of leaving Florida Atlantic, San Diego State and Loyola-Chicago (all Final Four teams since 2018) out of March Madness. Their inclusion is necessary for the popularity of the sport, from financial reasons to fairness of competition for the have-not's.

For decades Boise State has complained that none of the P4 teams are willing to schedule them in football. Power teams that won't schedule the Broncos arguing the Broncos do not belong in the playoffs because they don't play anyone is not just absurd, it's comical.

If the playoff rules ever come to be where the G5 is not included and only the Top 16 or so ranked teams get in, why don't we just go ahead and put eight SEC and eight Big Ten teams in the playoffs and move on. After all, that is where the college sports world is headed anyway.

THE SEC HYPOCRISY
Every year the SEC pundits do nothing but brag about how tough their league is while gladly accepting the financial benefits that come with it - upwards of $20 million more per year than all the other non-SEC teams make. Then at the end of the year complain about how unfair it is that their schedules are so difficult. You really cannot make this stuff up. But you chose this league, you benefit financially from this league. That should not also afford you the right to ignore conference losses when compared to other leagues.

BOWL GAMES ARE HISTORY
Not only do coaches move on or get fired before bowl games, players opt out of bowl games, teams opt out of bowl games. Notre Dame just did because they are disgruntled. Kansas State and Iowa State opted out for various reasons and got fined by their Big 12 affiliate leaders. Auburn, UCF, Baylor, Rutgers, Florida State - all with less than the required six wins to attend a bowl game - opted out when extended an offer because there was not enough teams qualified with six wins. Nobody considers bowl games relevant anymore. There was a time when this writer played college football that bowl games were the epitome of football joy. The process was accompanied by a week stay at a five star hotel, food every night at a five star restaurant closed for only players and cheerleaders, a full entourage of gifts, a legal $1000 per diem for the week, etc. The experience was unlike any other. Times have changed.

In 2025 there will be 40 bowl games. That includes the four bowl games used in the playoff system. In short, 80 teams will be playing in a bowl game. It's too many. The entire formula along with the playoff irrelevancy that has been created has relegated bowl games to meaningless. Moving forward, they are likely to disappear or at least be cut in sheer numbers. The playoffs will expand. First to 16 teams and eventually to 24-plus teams. The process is a matter of when not if. Enjoy what's left of the bowl games and their place in history making college football so grand. Their existence is soon to be history.

MOVING FORWARD
College football is so screwed up at present and everyone from top administrators/coaches to the average fan acknowledges such. NIL without rules (pay for play), unlimited transfer portal access, bowl game opt outs, conference championship game relevance, playoff inclusion, the playoff selection process, recruiting periods, college coaching carousels right before the playoffs start, conference alignment, the whole kit and caboodle is in complete lawless disarray. Any attempt to fix the situation is met with a federal judge saying otherwise legally. It's all just so screwed up and so it's no wonder we have what we have with every playoff selection process. With the financial haves getting all the marbles and Notre Dame being excluded.