Marcus Freeman’s reaction to Notre Dame’s CFP snub is more painful with Miami’s win

Every week of the College Football Playoff rankings release, Miami seemed to inch closer and closer to Notre Dame, until on Selection Sunday, the Hurricanes finally jumped the Fighting Irish for the final at-large bid. 

Obviously, Notre Dame was hurt by the selection, as Marcus Freeman’s team opted out of a bowl game after learning they’d be left out of the CFP, but on Friday, video began to surface on social media of Freeman and the team’s reaction, and it’s gotta be painful for Irish fans to watch. 

Miami’s win over Ole Miss proves how far Notre Dame could have gone in the CFP

It’s almost worse for Notre Dame fans to watch after Miami’s Thursday night Fiesta Bowl win in the College Football Playoff Semifinal over Ole Miss. Sure, Miami’s three-straight CFP wins prove that the Hurricanes belonged in the field, but they have also proved how winnable the CFP would have potentially been for the Irish. 

After losing the first two games of the season, as Freeman onboarded redshirt freshman CJ Carr into Mike Denbrock’s offense, Notre Dame ripped off 10 straight wins in dominant fashion. If not the best team in the country, the Irish were certainly one of the hottest down the stretch, and could have been a real threat in the CFP. Instead, Miami and Texas A&M, the two teams responsible for Notre Dame’s notches in the loss column, met in Round 1 in College Station, a 10-3 Miami win. 

There are plenty of issues with how the CFP field gets selected each year, and was selected this year. Many have focused on the Group of Six teams earning two of the 12 spots in the field, and Tulane and James Madison taking a spot away from Notre Dame. However, that was made possible by the ACC’s flawed tiebreaker process that prevented two-loss Miami from playing for the conference title, which five-loss Duke ultimately won over Virginia. 

The automatic qualifiers are a big obstacle for Notre Dame to overcome in the current 12-team CFP formula, but the good news for Freeman is that he likely won’t have to sweat out an at-large bid next season. That’s because Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua cut a deal with the CFP to guarantee the Irish a spot in the field if it finishes as a top-12 team in the final CFP rankings of the season.