Big 12’s Brett Yormark slams Notre Dame AD’s reaction to CFP decision: ‘Egregious’

LAS VEGAS — Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua’s criticism of ACC commissioner Jim Phillips has been “egregious” and “totally out of bounds.”

Yormark said he didn’t like how “Notre Dame has reacted” to its exclusion from the College Football Playoff, whose 12-team bracket was announced on Sunday.

“And if he was in the room, I’d tell him the same thing,” Yormark said during a panel at the Sports Business Journal’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum on Tuesday.

The Irish, who finished the season on a 10-game winning streak to finish 10-2, were the first team out after being in the bracket throughout the committee’s rankings.

In their final rankings, the Irish fell below ACC member Miami, which beat the Irish 27-24 in Week 1.

Bevacqua called their exclusion “the ultimate gut punch,” and Sunday, the program announced it would not continue its season in a bowl game. The Irish were expected to compete in the Pop-Tarts Bowl against BYU, which is an ACC bowl tie-in.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Bevacqua said the ACC engaged in a sustained, targeted attack on the Irish with social media posts comparing Miami to the Irish.

The ACC Network also aired a marathon of the Notre Dame-Miami game last week.

Bevacqua said he expected an apology over the social media posts and didn’t get one. He ***umed the posts were a low-level staffer overstepping his bounds. Bevacqua said in an interview with Dan Patrick on Monday that the ACC’s treatment of Notre Dame has done “permanent damage” to the Irish’s relationship with the conference. Notre Dame has 24 athletic teams that are ACC members, but its football team is not a member. The Irish and ACC signed a scheduling agreement in 2014 that provides at least five ACC opponents per year to Notre Dame’s schedule.

“We have no gripes about any of the schools in the ACC,” Bevacqua said. “But we were mystified by the actions of the conference to attack their biggest, really, business partner in football,” Bevacqua said.

Notre Dame competed in the ACC in football for one year in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many conferences were playing only in-conference schedules.

“It’s egregious going after Jim Phillips when they saved Notre Dame during COVID,” Yormark said.

Phillips responded with a Monday statement.

“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,” he said. “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.”

At his news conference on Tuesday, Bevacqua softened his comments about the “permanent damage.”

“All things can be healed,” he said. “I’m not going to be overly dramatic here, but it strained the relationship.”