Notre Dame head football coach Marcus Freeman made his scheduled appearance as a College GameDay guest analyst for ESPN ahead of Monday night’s College Football Playoff National Championship game between No. 10 Miami and No. 1 Indiana at Hard Rock Stadium.
While No. 11 Notre Dame — and particularly athletic director Pete Bevacqua — had a well-documented, highly criticized response to being left out of the College Football Playoff, Freeman offered thoughts on the snub that drew a handshake from ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit.
Here’s Marcus Freeman on ‘College GameDay’ ahead of the CFP national title game.
#CFP pic.twitter.com/sCFWHkQxSd https://t.co/9PX37LsBQA
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 19, 2026
“First when you find out, you’re disappointed,” Freeman told Herbstreit, Rece Davis, Nick Saban, Pat McAfee, and Desmond Howard on College GameDay. “You get in front of your team, you don’t have your answers for why.”
“This was never a situation where we deserved to be in the [College Football Playoff] over Miami, or Alabama, or anything like that,” Freeman explained. “The rankings had shown if we continue to win in the fashion we were winning, it looks like we’re going to make the playoffs. And we didn’t. So, the day we found out, the response was one thing. But after 24 hours, the ability to get in front of your team and say, “You know what? We have to move forward.'”
“And I remember our first team meeting we just had for 2026, my message was, ‘It’s up to us to leave no doubt,'” Freeman continued. “We left doubt. We lost by four or five points the first two games. We left doubt. And it’s our job to make sure we leave no doubt.”
“He’s still campaigning,” McAfee quipped.
“I don’t think he’s campaigning,” Herbstreit said.
Herbstreit then stood up and walked over to shake Freeman’s hand.
“That’s just a great approach to being left out,” Herbstreit said.
The Fighting Irish started the season 0-2 with losses to Miami (27-24) and Texas A&M (41-40) before winning 10 straight to close out the season. Notre Dame skipped the opportunity to play a bowl game after the CFP snub.
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