"Are we as sure as we think we are that Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua has filled his school's institutional diaper by carrying on about the Fighting Irish being excluded from the college football playoff? Or is this just college football fans, and mostly those from the lower right quadrant of the nation, shrieking in glee at said diaper and its owner?"
"We're not exactly sure, to be honest, although it says something about the tone of it all that the metaphorical diaper is a constant. Despite its ongoing consolidation into sprawling gigaconferences, college football has never been a more regional sport than it is now, and a large part of the nation that's still invested in the whole Ponzi scheme likes the fact that everyone involved is pantloading in a frantically public way."
"Notre Dame has always been an easy target for such fans and opponents because of the advantages it has blackjacked into being. Those include being an independent in the program's most lucrative sport and a conference member in all the others; having its own network; and the recent discovery that they can be grandfathered into the 2026 playoff simply by being ranked"
Pete Bevacqua's public complaint about Notre Dame being excluded from the College Football Playoff became a widely mocked spectacle. The episode amplified regional fandom dynamics and delight in seeing perceived institutional privilege embarrassed. Conference leaders exchanged public criticisms over ACC social-media promotion decisions and perceived inertia. Notre Dame benefits from football independence, conference membership in other sports, its own network, and potential grandfathering into the 2026 playoff by ranking. The situation highlights college football's consolidation into massive conferences while remaining intensely regional and performative. Many fans view the sport's evolution as a Ponzi-like system and treat disputes as entertainment.
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