ACC commissioner Jim Phillips says 'Notre Dame was a CFP-worthy team' in 2025

It’s patch up the relationship week for Notre Dame and the ACC.

Sure, On3’s Brett McMurphy wrote an article Tuesday that suggests otherwise. Numerous anonymous sources from the conference were quoted in it disparaging and attacking all things Fighting Irish football. But there are two men more powerful from the respective entities than anyone else, Notre Dame athletics director Pete Bevacqua and ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, and both of them were complimentary of the other’s operations at league meetings this week.

Bevacqua said Monday the university’s standing with the conference is “very good and healthy,” a comment coming five months after he said the league did “permanent damage” to the partnership by publicly lobbying against the Irish in their case to be a part of the College Football Playoff.

That leads directly into ACC commissioner Jim Phillips statement from Wednesday, a very declarative soundbite and one that contradicts what ACC-related social media accounts led people to believe back in November and December.

“Notre Dame was a CFP-worthy team this year,” he said. “They just were.”

Miami beat Notre Dame, 27-24, in the 2025 season opener at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. The Fighting Irish lost their next game, 41-40, to Texas A&M at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Ind. From there, though, they rattled off 10 consecutive victories and had made as compelling of a case as any to be one of the last teams let into the College Football Playoff.

Only, the last team let in technically ended up being Miami, also an owner of a 10-2 record and the winner of the head-to-head matchup heard ’round the college football world. Phillips made the point Wednesday that the Hurricanes barely squeaked into the playoff and still made it all the way to the national championship game, something Notre Dame might’ve been able to do had the Irish gotten their shot.

All of that in mind, Phillips is in favor of a 24-team playoff so that more teams like Notre Dame, who was playing its best football of the season at the right time, have chances to keep rolling all the way to the title game. Bevacqua told The Athletic’s Pete Sampson that he supports a 24-team CFP format as well. That’s not just a Notre Dame thing, either.

That’s for the sake of the sport, as Phillips put it.

“There is so much investment going on in the sport of football in college athletics,” Phillips said. “I’m not necessarily concerned about schools that have traditionally found their way to the College Football Playoff. I’m talking about those that would have a chance that right now don’t have a chance to get into that playoff and have a reasonable chance to win it. I think that’s about access.

“And if you’re going to ask presidents and chancellors and boards to continue to invest in their football programs, it’s really important that they have hope, that they have an opportunity at the beginning of the season to get into the playoff. And I think it can also lead to better non-conference scheduling that you can afford a loss or two or maybe even three.”

More and more, it’s seeming like Notre Dame will go down as the most mainstream martyr of the 12-team format. If Phillips, Bevacqua and others who support a 24-team format have their way, the 2025 Irish would forever be remembered as the team that just missed out on a playoff spot and maybe could have gone all the way if it didn’t.

We’ll never know. But it sure sounds like the odd team out will no longer be the 13th. It’ll be the 25th.