The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Atlantic Coast Conference had their hug-it-out moment and have made up, according to the league’s commissioner.
In an interview this week with The Athletic, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said that he believes the rift between the Fighting Irish and the conference, dating to last December when the 12-team College Football Playoff was announced, is over and water under the bridge.
When the CFP field was unveiled, ACC school Miami made the cut, but Notre Dame didn’t. The ACC, on social media, had pointed to the Hurricanes beating the Fighting Irish by three points in the 2025 season opener as a big reason why Miami should have gotten into the CFP over Notre Dame, which is an ACC member in many sports but an independent in football.
The Fighting Irish’s athletics director, Pete Bevacqua, took that personally and felt like the ACC was attacking Notre Dame.
Notre Dame and the ACC have patched things up
Bevacqua claimed that the ACC had done “permanent damage” to its relationship with Notre Dame. In any event, Phillips said that ACC and Fighting Irish officials met within a week after the public outcry from Bevacqua.
“You’ve got to reconcile differences, and you can’t be afraid to do that,” Phillips told The Athletic. “It’s important to listen to what your partner has to say, and (it’s) a school that means an awful lot. I feel really good about it.”
Notre Dame’s issue in 2025 was that it lost the two games that meant the most on its schedule, first at Miami by a field goal and then at home to Texas A&M by one point.
After its 0-2 start, the Fighting Irish rattled off 10 straight wins, but those triumphs didn’t move the needle enough to get Notre Dame into the CFP.
Looking ahead to 2026, experts view Notre Dame as a significant contender to make the CFP, which will stay at 12 participants next season.
The team’s starting quarterback this past season, CJ Carr, had a solid redshirt freshman campaign, and he’s deemed a Heisman Trophy contender in 2026.
The Fighting Irish will have to replace star running back Jeremiyah Love, a Heisman Trophy finalist, who is headed to this spring’s NFL Draft.
In the upcoming season, Miami will travel to Notre Dame on Nov. 7. It should be a great game. Hopefully, if the Hurricanes win on the road, and the ACC pumps that up on social media, Bevacqua’s feelings won’t be hurt too much.
