ACC's Jim Phillips defends league backing members in CFP bid chase amid Notre Dame AD's criticism

Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner Jim Phillips said the league has a “responsibility” to advocate for its football-playing members for College Football Playoff bids, coming after criticism from Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua tied to the league's public support of Miami for a bid.

Monday's statement came after Bevacqua told “The Dan Patrick Show” earlier in the day that the ACC's Miami advocacy had “certainly done permanent damage” to the relationship between the league and the school — which is a football independent but an ACC member in its other league sports.

The Fighting Irish were passed over for an at-large bid, with the Hurricanes getting into the 12-team field largely by virtue of a head-to-head win against the Irish to open the season. As a result, Notre Dame opted not to play in any bowl game — it has access to the ACC's bowl tie-ins each year if it fails to make the CFP — and end its season.

“The University of Notre Dame is an incredibly valued member of the ACC and there is tremendous respect and appreciation for the entire institution,” Phillips said. "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.”

Making the Miami case

Phillips had been emphatic in arguing that the Hurricanes deserved a playoff bid along with the winner of the Duke-Virginia league title game, making his case in an interview with The Associated Press and other outlets.

Additionally, the league had been clear it was in steady communication with the CFP committee in supplying data that made the case for its teams leading up to Sunday's reveal of the playoff bracket.

And there had been other ways that league brands were tied to making Miami's case more subtly. That included the ESPN-partnered ACC Network repeatedly showing a replay of the Notre Dame-Miami game throughout last week — including four times on Thursday's schedule and five more on Friday.

That Aug. 31 game loomed as a major factor, both from the CFP committee’s evaluation on head-to-head matchups and as a differentiator between teams with identical 10-2 records and similar strength of schedule.

‘Strained’

In his interview, Bevacqua said the school was “mystified by the actions of the conference, to attack their biggest, really, business partner in football” and league member in other sports.

“I wouldn't be honest with you if I didn't say they have certainly done permanent damage to the relationship between the conference and Notre Dame,” Bevacqua said.

He went on to say the school “didn't appreciate the fact that we were singled out repeatedly and compared to Miami” by the league, adding that the league was “taking shots at us.”

“I would just say it's been strained,” Bevacqua later said in response to a question whether the school would reevaluate its relationship with the ACC.

Partnership terms

Notre Dame joined the ACC in non-football sports for the 2013-14 sports season, and the league has made repeated overtures to the Fighting Irish to join in football over the years.

Regardless, Notre Dame's current partnership with the ACC in football has been a key piece of its long-standing operation as an independent. The league and school have a scheduling agreement that ensures an average of five ACC opponents facing Notre Dame annually, along with other scheduling arrangements such as a 12-year deal with Clemson for 2027-38 in a marquee matchup announced earlier this year.

That's been valuable for both parties. ACC teams get the benefit of playing amid the increased attention that goes with the tradition-rich Irish program, which now can lead to more revenue for schools with the league's new distribution model incorporating TV viewership ratings in its payouts to league members.

For Notre Dame, there's certainty in building a schedule against Power Four teams as an independent — now a trickier task with the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC all playing or moving to nine-game league schedules that leave fewer nonconference slots available.

And notably, it made for a logical pairing when Notre Dame signed on to play the 2020 football season as a full ACC member due to the COVID-19 pandemic, guaranteeing its ability to play a full slate as teams largely played only conference schedules nationally amid protocols trying to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Notre Dame reached the ACC title game but lost to Clemson in that contest, then returned to independent status the following year.

The ACC includes Notre Dame in its annual distribution of league revenues to member schools, though the Fighting Irish receives a reduced share as a football independent with their own TV deal with NBC. According to tax documents, the league distributed an average of nearly $45 million to each of its 14 football-playing members for the 2023-24 sports season. Notre Dame received $20.7 million.