Cam Newton, Stephen A. Smith go scorched earth on Notre Dame in absolute clownshow

When Notre Dame begins its next march to the College Football Playoff, it will have a better idea of the path it needs to take after the NCAA announced what the CFP format is for the 2026 campaign.

The powers that be had reportedly discussed expanding the CFP field to either 16 or 24 teams, but in the end, an agreement couldn't be reached, and the format will once again include 12 teams. There was one significant change as all four Power Conference teams get an auto bid, no matter where they're ranked.

Notre Dame, meanwhile, has the much-publicized MOU that allows it into the field as long as it's ranked in the Top 12. That provision for the Fighting Irish had ESPN talking heads Cam Newton and Stephen A. Smith fuming on Friday morning. In fact, it had them so enraged that the segment on the College Football Playoff quickly devolved into an absolute clownshow, with both men making poorly thought-out complaints about the entire situation.

Why ESPN personalities erupted over Notre Dame’s CFP status in 2026

"Bump Notre Dame," Newton started, meaning he felt as though the committee should bump the Irish from the playoff field no matter what. "This is when you start to think about all these different things that the preferential treatment that Notre Dame has gotten will get and will continue to get."

That's what I'm like, 'but Notre Dame,' it comes down to a point where now you start to say, 'Cam, you're bitter. SEC is dead.' That's cool. Oh, man, whatever. Notre Dame hasn't been relevant in years."

At this point, the former NFL MVP's own cohost pointed out that the "not relevant" Irish were in the National Championship game just last year.

However, Newton doubled down on his take by moving the goal posts.

"They haven't been relevant. For years. You take that one national championship with coach Freeman out of the equation. They have not been relevant."

Then it was time for Stephen A. Smith to chime in with his usual poorly researched, barely coherent arguments.

"The reason why I'm ticked off is because what the hell is this about, Notre Dame? Why do we have a separate category for Notre Dame? What makes them so damn special? I'm really getting sick of this Notre Dame fawning."

"But when people are complaining about, well, Alabama went in there ahead of them. Well, Alabama went to Athens and beat Georgia on the road weeks earlier. Yeah, they got stomped in the SEC championship game by Georgia a few weeks later, but they were pretty banged up at that particular moment in time, and they had beaten Georgia on the road."

As if every team isn't pretty banged up in November?

"They played a conference championship game. What was Notre Dame? doing. They were at home sitting on their couch. Why? Because they're not a member of a conference."

Smith then turned his attention to Miami (who was also sitting on their coach the same weekend Alabama was getting stomped on in the SEC title game).

The ESPN mouthpiece made the argument that Miami got in because the ACC went to bat for them and didn't for the Irish. That point is valid, though not a particularly good rationale for setting the CFP field.

At the end of the day, the job of Stephen A. Smith and Cam Newton is to say things that will make people mad. They say things that will get people talking about them, much like Notre Dame fans are now talking about today. It would be nice if every once in a while, either man put together an argument more than 30 seconds before they went on the air.