Notre Dame controversially left out of 2025 College Football Playoff

The GIST: The final College Football Playoff (CFP) rankings are out, the second-ever 12-team bracket is officially set, and some fans are big mad. There’s a lot to cover before you play The GIST’s College Football Bracket Challenge, so let’s dive right in.

👊 Conference championship weekend’s impact: Most of the title games went as expected on Saturday, including a No. 1 vs. No. 2 Big Ten barnburner and dominant wins for No. 3 Georgia and No. 4 Texas Tech in the SEC and Big 12, respectively.

• But there was one major exception: Duke, an underdog with a 7-5 record heading into the game, stunned No. 19 Virginia in overtime to win the ACC title and box Virginia out of the CFP, ultimately creating chaos in the bracket.

🤯 The controversy: Especially with the convoluted selection process, there’s always going to be a bubble team that just misses the CFP, and this year, it was No. 11 Notre Dame. The committee awarded at-large bids to No. 9 Alabama and No. 10 Miami over the Fighting Irish, a move some are calling an unjustified snub. Heather Dinich is all of us.

• Notre Dame would have been eligible for the most prestigious non–CFP bowl games, but instead, the Irish opted out altogether. Whether motivated by protest, injury prevention, or sore loser status, the future impact on non–CFP bowl games could be huge.

⏩ What’s next: You have 11 days to argue about the Irish’s exclusion and lock in your bracket picks before the CFP’s first round kicks off on December 19th — and in the meantime, fans, coaches, and athletic departments will continue to argue about the postseason format. Hey, it’s not college football if you’re not fighting about something.