Jeremiyah Love Discusses Notre Dame Opting Out of 2025 Bowl Game

While appearing on Sportscenter on Saturday, Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Jeremiyah Love talked about what the decision-making process was for the program to opt out of playing in any bowl games.

“It was kind of a full team decision, full consensus decision. So our captains asked all of the players that they could, you know, what they think about the bowl games and things like that. And we all came to a consensus, or final decision, that we didn’t think that playing in that bowl game would really represent our 2025 football team in the right way. Because we feel like our team was just very special throughout the year, we did a lot of great things, and in that bowl game, a lot of people are going to opt out. A lot of people are just going to not play, or have their own plans … which, rightfully so. They have that right.

“But we didn’t feel like that team that would go into that bowl game was a great representation of how special this 2025 football team was. So we all came to a consensus of, you know, we don’t want to put this team in a bad light because we feel like it was a great team. We’re not saying playing in a bowl game would put us in a bad light, but it just wouldn’t be the best representation of our team. So that ultimately led us to come into that decision.”

The Fighting Irish were the first team out as they were ranked 11th in the final College Football Playoff rankings. However, with the automatic bids for the five highest-ranked conference champions, Notre Dame was on the outside looking in. With the program potentially getting prepared for some major changes, it will be intriguing to see how they look next year to try to get back into the College Football Playoff.