College Football

Joey McGuire on Notre Dame: 'Be in a Conference, And You're in the Playoffs'

Published Dec. 22, 2025 3:38 p.m. ET

Should Notre Dame have been in the College Football Playoff instead of Miami or Alabama? That's asking the wrong kind of question, according to Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire. The issues with CFP selection, and the controversies that arise from them, are more structural than that based on his response on Monday to a question about said controversies.

"It's really tough, because you hate to eliminate anybody, but I do think that when you have a criteria of where you're going to select a team, everybody should be in that same criteria. So, and I don't wanna make Notre Dame mad, but be in a conference and you're in the playoffs. If they're in the ACC they're in the playoffs."

This is not the first time that McGuire has brought up Notre Dame's lack of a conference in recent weeks. After Texas Tech defeated BYU 29-7 on Nov. 8, McGuire, in the postgame press conference, said that, "I have so much respect for BYU. I do. I was really excited whenever they joined the Big 12 because I think that they carry a lot of weight and a lot of respect. I think that I have a lot of respect for them, entering a conference and not playing an independent schedule like other people. Y’all already know who that is."

He probably was not referring to the University of Connecticut.

Notre Dame's athletic director, Pete Bevacqua, claimed that the relationship between the Fighting Irish and the Atlantic Coast Conference – where their non-football athletic programs are members, and where the football team has a scheduling arrangement that grants them an average of five games per year against ACC teams – was "permanently damaged" by what he and the program perceived as attacks on Notre Dame, in favor of full conference member and eventual CFP entrant, Miami. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips disagreed with that assertion in a response, stating that, "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.

"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."

Consider what McGuire said there: ACC social media accounts would not have promoted Miami's win against Notre Dame as heavily if they also had to back Notre Dame as a member of the conference. As it is, though, as Phillips explained, they have to advocate for their "football-playing member institutions," which Miami is in a way independent Notre Dame is not.

McGuire went on to say that this is nothing against Notre Dame, and this is also not just about them in terms of the structural issues. "Marcus Freeman, I think he's an absolute rock star. I would want my son to play for Marcus Freeman. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about, let's make it across-the-board that everyone is measured the same. When you do that, if you're going to put a G5 in, or a G6, then I think that their scheduling has to change some if they're going to get in. Or, at some point I could see it, I don't know when that is, you have the FCS, you have the G6 playoffs, I think it'd be great if they did the same thing they do in the FCS where they have home games. It'd be great for TV. And then you have the Power 4 playoffs.

"I think there's going to be a lot of talk over this offseason of how fast we expand, because as a fan – and I watched all those games – man I would have loved to see Notre Dame playing Ole Miss in The Grove. And I'd have loved to see BYU play in Oregon, in Eugene. I think those would have been great games, great TV, and so at some point I think there's going to be major changes in college football. There needs to be."

Texas Tech is the No. 4 seed in the College Football Playoff, and will face No. 5 Oregon on Thursday, Jan. 1 following their first-round bye.

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