The College Football Playoff has left out Notre Dame (10-2) from the final 12-team playoff field. The CFP committee snubbed the Fighting Irish in favor of the Alabama Crimson Tide (10-3) and Miami Hurricanes (10-2). The Tide had more losses than ND, but their final loss was in the SEC Championship game against the Georgia Bulldogs.
Sports commentator Jason Whitlock is a known critic of Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders, and he used the latest College Football Playoff decision to throw shade at the Hall of Famer once again.
Despite what appears to be a controversial decision to leave out Notre Dame, head coach Marcus Freeman is not receiving enough due acknowledgment. He compared Freeman to Deion Sanders, who enjoys a lot of fame.
“Serious question: If Marcus Freeman wore a big gold chain, adopted a flashy nickname and had rappers on the sideline, how different would the conversation about Notre Dame be this morning? Black men gotta wear the clown suit to win popular support. Sad,” Whitlock wrote on X.
Serious question: If Marcus Freeman wore a big gold chain, adopted a flashy nickname and had rappers on the sideline, how different would the conversation about Notre Dame be this morning?
Black men gotta wear the clown suit to win popular support. Sad.
— Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) December 7, 2025
Controversy Regarding Notre Dame’s Snub From College Football Playoff
Before the championship week, the CFP committee released its last-second rankings in which Notre Dame was sitting in the final at-large spot ahead of the Miami Hurricanes. Even then, Marcus Freeman argued that they deserved to be ranked ahead of Alabama because they defeated the Stanford Cardinal 49-20 in the final regular season game.
“We’re never always going to agree, especially when your program is the one that’s getting dropped after winning by 20-something points,” Freeman said. “It’s obviously disappointing, but moreso because you’re confused in terms of what we could have done differently and why we fell when you won 49–20 … I don’t know if [Alabama] did that much better than us to jump us.”
However, everything changed on its head after the Duke Blue Devils defeated the Virginia Cavaliers in the ACC championship game.
Because of this, the CFP committee was faced with the decision to either snub the entire Power 4 conference or rank Miami ahead of Notre Dame, given the Hurricanes did defeat the Fighting Irish in the regular season.
The CFP did the latter and chose not to snub ACC for Notre Dame.
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