ACC commissioner trying to defend Notre Dame snub comes a little too late

Notre Dame and the ACC have a very complicated relationship right now. For every sport other than football and ice hockey, Notre Dame plays in the ACC. In football, the team is independent, which they have been since the start of the program. Notre Dame and the ACC have a contract that allows Notre Dame to schedule five ACC games a season.

The Fighting Irish did that, and this past football season, their first opponent was Miami, a team that ended up getting into the College Football Playoff over Notre Dame. That has certainly been the biggest talking point of the bracket reveal was the Irish getting snubbed in favor of Miami.

Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua said in his press conference on Tuesday that he is very upset with the way the ACC treated Notre Dame, constantly singling them out on their network and being very anti-Notre Dame. Ultimately, the conference got what it wanted with Miami in the field, but ACC commissioner Jim Phillips is trying to come out and clear up that narrative.

Well, Phillips, it is a little too late for that.

ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips lobbies for CFP expansion amid Notre Dame snub

In an interview on Wednesday, Phillips was asked about whether or not the College Football Playoff allows enough teams. In order to save himself from all the Notre Dame hate, Phillips talked about how the playoff should expand to more teams because a key team was left out this season.

"If you’re leaving teams out of the Playoff that could win a national championship, then you don’t have the right number," Phillips said.

So Phillips sees Notre Dame as a team could could have definitely won a National Championship this season, but he didn't seem to care about it when the ACC was completely anti-Irish the week leading up to the bracket reveal.

It doesn't matter how many teams the CFP expands to; there is always going to be a team that is going to get left out that shouldn't. Everyone thought that when the playoff expanded to 12 teams, it would fix everything, but here we are again complaining about a team that didn't get in that should have.

Phillips is trying to save himself from the Notre Dame hate by defending the Irish now, and it is just a little too late for that. The damage has been done and the ACC could be out of a lot of money if Notre Dame decided to take their games elsewhere.