Notre Dame's cowardly bowl decision only proved it will never be a Georgia in CFP era

The past is the past, but the future is now. Although the Notre Dame Fighting Irish did defeat the Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl last year, in what was Gunner Stockton's first career start, we are going to have to wait at least another season for a potential rematch because the Golden Domers did not make the playoff. The first team out has decided not to play in a bowl game after missing out on it.

Notre Dame may have its reasons for doing so, but this is the consequence of going 10-2 in a cherrypicked schedule. For years, Notre Dame got to have its cake and eat it, too. Notre Dame exceptionalism often irritates the most casual college football fans. By not playing in a league, the Selection Committee decided to punish them, fairly or not, by picking Alabama and Miami instead.

Furthermore, Notre Dame has unofficially proven it will never be on Georgia's sustained level again.

Let's go back to the 2023 college football season. A 12-0 (8-0) Georgia team lost by a single score in the SEC Championship to Alabama. The No. 1 team in the nation fell all the way to No. 6 and missed the final four-team College Football Playoff because of it. Rather than pout and cry the whole way home, Georgia opted to play undefeated ACC champion Florida State in the ensuing Orange Bowl.

Georgia humiliated Florida State in the New Year's Six Bowl. The 'Noles have never been right since.

Georgia handled its snubbing way better than Notre Dame did with theirs

It may have only been two years ago, but it was a vastly different time in college football. The latest wave of realignment did not exist. Oregon and Washington still played in the Pac-12. Oklahoma and Texas were in the Big 12. SMU was a Group of Five team. Cal and Stanford were not members of the ACC. BYU was a national independent. Most importantly, only four teams made the playoff that year.

While this will only be the fifth time Smart has led his alma mater to the playoff, Georgia would have made it ever year since 2017 in a 12-team format. How do we know this? Well, Georgia is about to play in at least one New Year's Six Bowl for the ninth season in a row. That is sustained excellence. Again, Notre Dame is a great program, but there are levels to this. Let's unpack this a little bit more...

Not including Notre Dame's decision to punt on going to a bowl game this year, or Georgia's absolute drubbing of the Seminoles in the 2024 Orange Bowl, there are two other instances at hand where Georgia comes out of it looking better than Notre Dame when it came to playoff inclusion. That would be Georgia being the No. 3 seed this year over the No. 2, as well as Notre Dame's entire 2020 season.

Last Saturday, Georgia avenged its only loss of the season to Alabama in the SEC Championship. The Bulldogs beat the Crimson Tide by margin. Weirdly enough, Georgia did not move up a spot in the rankings from No. 3, nor did Alabama drop a spot from No. 9. Georgia should be the No. 2 team in the land over Ohio State, while Alabama should probably be No. 10 for having the courage to play again.

This is why the Selection Committee was always going to keep Notre Dame out if it came down to a three-team race for two spots between them, Alabama, and Miami. The Selection Committee was never going to punish a Power Two runner-up who was already in the playoff field in the penultimate rankings by knocking them out. Otherwise, it ruins league title bouts. Miami beat Notre Dame before.

While there is an argument for Notre Dame being screwed out of a playoff spot, it is incredibly rich the high horses they are talking down to us from. They are saying horrendous things about the ACC, a league it has syphoned off like a parasite for the last several years. It is the same league that made them an unofficial football member in 2020 so it could have a season. Notre Dame made the playoff...

For all the reasons stated above, it is why nobody outside of their nationwide and rabid fanbase feels sorry for them. This is not some 2014 TCU screw job where the Horned Frogs dropped from No. 3 to No. 6 after beating a toothless Iowa State team by 50-plus points. The Big 12 did not have a conference championship that year. It may have been hurt, but it found a way to have one right after.

In the end, it may be tough for ESPN and the College Football Playoff to not have Notre Dame in the field. Let's just end with this. If you want to make a team, or a field in this case, you are so better off being one of the first few to be included, as opposed to being in and around the cut line. That thing can change in a nanosecond. Notre Dame did not think it would, but it certainly did Sunday morning.

Ask yourself this: Would Alabama or Miami have played in a bowl if it was ranked No. 13? Absolutely!