USA Today predicts Notre Dame football refusing to play Miami and SMU, forcing neutral-site games on the ACC teams it will play

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have been painted as a tyrant in College Football. In many ways, the program is. The rules for the CFP were changed after the Fighting Irish were snubbed from the 2025/2026 field, after all.

USA Today’s Matt Hayes predicted a horrifying future for the ACC in the ongoing football partnership with Notre Dame, where the Fighting Irish get all the revenue from the five games the conference offers to the every-sport-but-football ACC member.

Hayes believes it could get as bad as Notre Dame refusing to play the Miami Hurricanes ever again in the regular season after this November’s clash, or refusing to face off against the SMU Mustangs. Beyond that, Hayes believes the Fighting Irish can force neutral-site games against the ACC programs they will play.

“The ACC didn’t fine Notre Dame — there’s zero chance another conference school could claim ‘permanent damage’ and not get fined — for its insufferable insubordination in December,” Hayes prefaced before saying, “Didn’t blink when Notre Dame — after it lost to Miami in the regular season and had the same record as Miami at the end of the 2025 season — believed it should’ve been selected to the CFP, and blamed the ACC for a lack of support. Whatever that means …

“How disgustingly offensive and one-sided can this relationship get? What’s next, Notre Dame demanding it doesn’t have to play Miami after this season? Or it won’t play SMU, the next program on the rise in the conference? Or worse, it chooses who it plays and where it plays — including a couple of neutral site road games (see: ACC home games) sold to Amazon or Netflix or Apple. If you don’t think that’s coming, you clearly haven’t been following this submissive relationship. “

The ACC supports expanding CFP, so it can’t be against Notre Dame that much

Notre Dame may not realize it, but forcing a rule change so that it’d never get snubbed again was a major ACC concession. The ACC even wants to expand the CFP, which would basically guarantee the Fighting Irish make it every year. Notre Dame can play a weak schedule, lose two or even three games, and probably still make the field.

It doesn’t seem like the ACC hates the Fighting Irish within that context. It’s too bad Notre Dame ever peddled that narrative on a national stage.