Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark thinks that Pete Bevacqua took things too far in the wake of Notre Dame missing the College Football Playoff.
Yormark, speaking on a panel in Las Vegas on Tuesday, called out Bevacqua for the way that the Notre Dame athletic directorspoke out about the ACC and commissioner Jim Phillipsthis week.
"I don't like how Notre Dame's reacted to it," Yormark said, via the Sports Business Journal. "I think Pete, his behavior has been egregious … I think he is totally out of bounds in his approach, and if he was in the room, I'd tell him the same thing.
IAF on stage exclusive:Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark's full comments on the CFP decision, Notre Dame and athletic director Pete Bevacqua 👇pic.twitter.com/XWpXRio8mg
— Sports Business Journal (@SBJ)December 10, 2025
Notre Dame, despite an impressive 10-2 season, was surprisingly left out of the College Football Playoff on Sunday. The school quickly opted not to play in a bowl game, either. Almost immediately,Bevacqua told Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger that he was hitwith "overwhelming shock and sadness" by the decision, and he later called the CFP's weekly ranking shows a "farce." The playoff, he said, "was stolen from our student-athletes."
Instead, Miami received the final at-large spot over Notre Dame in the field despite Notre Dame being repeatedly ranked higher in the weekly CFP polls throughout the season. The Hurricanes, also 10-2, beat the Fighting Irish in the first week of the regular season.
While it's easy to understand why Bevacqua would stand up for his school after feeling like they were snubbed from a shot at a championship, he quickly took things further andstarted attacking the ACC— which Notre Dame is a partial member of. While the Fighting Irish compete as an independent in football, they participate in the ACC in other sports, and play multiple ACC opponents every football season.
Bevacqua claimed the ACC did "permanent damage" to its relationship with Notre Dame while pushing for Miami to make it into the College Football Playoff instead.
"We didn't appreciate the fact that we were singled out repeatedly and compared to Miami, not by Miami, Miami has every right to do that," he said. "But it raised a lot of eyebrows here that the conference was taking shots at us."
Phillips issued a statement in response to Bevacqua's comments later on Monday afternoon.
"The University of Notre Dame is an incredibly valued member of the ACC, and there is tremendous respect and appreciation for the entire institution," Phillips' statement reads. "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."
There are plenty who are on Notre Dame's side here, and Bevacqua is continuing to speak out. He calledNotre Dame's finish to the seasonafter losing back-to-back games to open the year "one of the most dominant 10-game runs in the history of college football" on Tuesday.
Clearly, though, others in the sport aren't too happy with him. It's unclear what the university's relationship with the ACC will look like moving forward. But as the football team is still independent, Bevacqua doesn't seem too worried about what Yormark or others like him may think.
