NEW YORK — Jeremiyah Love said Notre Dame not playing in a bowl game was a “team decision” and that the Fighting Irish put themselves in position to miss the College Football Playoff by leaving it up to the committee.
Love and the other Heisman Trophy finalists appeared Friday at a media availability in Midtown Manhattan. No. 11 Notre Dame’s season officially ended last Sunday when the school announced the team would not participate in a bowl after being left out of the Playoff.
“Ultimately came down to us wanting to give the best representation of our 2025 football team,” Love said. “We felt like we had a very special group, and at the end of the season, we weren’t going to have the same team that we did going into the bowl game. So we wanted to make sure that we didn’t want to represent the team in any light that it wasn’t throughout the whole 2025 season.”
Notre Dame (10-2) ended the season on a 10-game winning streak and was the first team out of the CFP. The Irish had been ranked high enough to be in the 12-team field during a month’s worth of selection committee rankings before the committee moved them down one spot and out of the field in the final rankings.
Athletic director Pete Bevacqua spent several days publicly criticizing the selection process and the ACC, which publicly lobbied against Notre Dame as it tried to support No. 10 Miami, which defeated Notre Dame in Week 1. The Irish are independent in football but members of the ACC for most sports. Notre Dame also has a yearly football scheduling agreement with the ACC.
Love said the initial reaction to not making the CFP left out was sadness.
“Everybody at that time didn’t understand why,” he said. “But once, a few days went by, once some time passed by, we realized that we were only in that position because we put ourselves in that position.”
Notre Dame began the season 0-2 with losses to Miami and No. 7 Texas A&M by a total of 4 points.
“At the end of the day, we left it up to the committee to decide whether we’re going to be in the playoffs or not,” Love said.
Love, who ran for 1,372 yards this season, is trying to become the first running back to win the Heisman since Derrick Henry in 2015. The other finalists are Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza and Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin. Mendoza and Sayin lead their teams into the Playoff as the No. 1 and 2 seeds, respectively. Pavia and No. 14 Vanderbilt are heading to the ReliaQuest Bowl against No. 23 Iowa.
Notre Dame closed out its season, Love said, with a team charity event earlier this week.
“We understand, if we took care of business throughout the whole season, that there would have been no doubt we would have been in the College Football Playoff,” Love said. “But at the end of the day, we had the season that we had, which we’re not by any means disappointed, and we’re proud of the way we play. We’re proud of the way we ended the season. It just was disappointing that we didn’t get into the playoffs.”
