Notre Dame Star Says Opposing Teams 'Scared' To Schedule Them

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish suddenly find themselves in the center of the college football world.

The Irish finished 10-2 in the regular season, losing their first two games of the year by a combined four points to two top-10 quality opponents in the Miami Hurricanes and Texas A&M Aggies. They won out, dominating against a mostly mediocre schedule, with their best win coming against the rival USC Trojans. But the Irish were left out of the College Football Playoff, an example of how human voters often value the wrong things and ignore underlying results.

Instead of accepting their snub, however, Notre Dame announced they'd simply decline any bowl invite, a bizarre and widely-criticized move. Those who criticized their sulking pointed out that the Irish have benefited from preferential treatment for years, avoiding the conference structure that nearly every other team is forced to contend with. And that they should be forced to play a tougher schedule to avoid being snubbed in the future.

With the news that the Irish may have an agreement to automatically be included in a 12-team playoff moving forward, some reports have suggested that athletic directors of opposing schools would like to freeze out Notre Dame, refusing to schedule them in order to boost their chances of reaching the top 12.

Well, star running back Jeremiyah Love has clearly heard those critics, and has a very different viewpoint on what's motivating a potential Irish boycott.

Oct 18, 2025; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Jeremiyah Love (4) runs with the ball while Southern California Trojans safety Kamari Ramsey (7) defends in the first half at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

Jeremiyah Love Says Opposing AD's Are Scared

"They’re scared to play us," Love said, per Mike Bernadino. "They don’t want to play Notre Dame because we’re Notre Dame. You’re leaving us out of your schedule, it’s not a good look. Why not play us? That’s how I think about it."

Lost in the debate over this year's resume is that the Irish did, in fact, build a pretty solid schedule. They had a road game against Miami, perennially and recently a highly-regarded program. They hosted Texas A&M, a high-level SEC opponent that wound up finishing 7th in the final College Football Playoff poll. USC also finished 16th, meaning the Irish had three games against teams ranked in the top 16. Pittsburgh was a relatively strong opponent as well, only falling out of the rankings late in the season after losing to Miami.

They also scheduled Arkansas, another SEC team, and Boise State, which wound up winning the Mountain West Conference. Was it the most difficult schedule in the country? No, not even close. But it was hardly an embarrassment. The issue for the Irish is that they lost their two toughest games, although their dominance in the remaining 10 was certainly worthy of a top-10 ranking.

Still, the Irish might find it difficult to schedule top-quality opponents moving forward, even if it has nothing to do with AD's being "scared."

With the move to nine conference games in the SEC, teams have taken a markedly different approach to non-conference games. Future series between big programs are being canceled left and right, and Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian has already threatened to stop scheduling any marquee non-conference opponents. 

A nine-game conference schedule means more conference losses, and less margin for error. More programs are likely to assess that it's not worth the risk to add Notre Dame when they don't need to. That doesn't necessarily mean they're scared, but it does mean they've made the logical assessment that making the playoff comes first. And jeopardizing that isn't worthwhile.

That's bad news for college football fans who enjoy big games throughout the regular season. It's no fun seeing top teams beat up on hapless underdogs all year. Unfortunately, we might be getting a lot more of it.