Notre Dame Athletic Director Pete Bevacqua says his program was “mystified” by the pro-Miami hype campaign conducted by the ACC and its “attack” on his program, as it mounted a television and social media campaign aimed at promoting Miami over Notre Dame for the College Football Playoff (CFP).
During an interview with sports talk radio host Dan Patrick on Monday, Bevacqua said the ACC’s actions had done “permanent damage” to the conference’s relationship with Notre Dame.
“We were mystified by the actions of the conference to attack their biggest business partner in football and a member of their conference in 24 of our other sports,” Bevacqua said on The Dan Patrick Show. “They have certainly done permanent damage to the relationship between the conference and Notre Dame.”
When challenged by Patrick to expand upon what he meant by saying “permanent damage” had been done, Bevacqua replied, “We didn’t appreciate the fact that we were singled out repeatedly and compared to Miami, not by Miami; Miami has every right to do that. But it raised a lot of eyebrows here that the conference was taking shots at us.”
Later Monday afternoon, ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips responded to Bevacqua’s concerns.
The University of Notre Dame is an incredibly valued member of the ACC, and there is tremendous respect and appreciation for the entire institution. With that said, when it comes to football, we have a responsibility to support and advocate for all 17 of our football-playing member institutions, and I stand behind our conference efforts to do just that leading up to the College Football Playoff Committee selections on Sunday.
At no time was it suggested by the ACC that Notre Dame was not a worthy candidate for inclusion in the field. We are thrilled for the University of Miami while also understanding and appreciating the significant disappointment of the Notre Dame players, coaches and program.
Notre Dame is an independent in football but plays several ACC teams each year as a partial member. However, Notre Dame is a full-time ACC member in dozens of other sports.
Many on social media and in sports media have called for Notre Dame to join a conference in the wake of its exclusion by the CFP. However, BYU, a former independent school like Notre Dame that recently joined the Big 12 to improve its chances of advancing in the CFP, didn’t seem to benefit from that at all. In fact, six teams in the CFP did not win their conferences.
One possible route for Notre Dame out of its partial deal with the ACC, should it choose to use it, is the anti-disparagement clause it has in its contract with the conference. It could be argued that the conference violated that clause by airing the Notre Dame-Miami game from earlier in the year on the ACC Network nearly round-the-clock in the week leading up to the final CFP vote, as well as by repeated social media posts that promoted Miami and appeared to mock the Irish.
In addition, Notre Dame’s buyout as a partial conference member is considerably lower than that of a full member.
While Bevacqua characterized his program’s relationship with the ACC as “permanently damaged,” he did not announce plans to begin the process of leaving the conference in football or any other sport.
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