Notre Dame played for a national championship one calendar year ago.
However, former Auburn quarterback Cam Newton believes the Irish haven’t been “relevant” in college football for years.
During ESPN’s First Take on Friday, Newton took aim at “preferential treatment” given to Notre Dame in the context of the College Football Playoff discussion and said that the Irish have done nothing in recent history to warrant that treatment aside from 1 runner-up finish during the 2024-25 season.
“Bump Notre Dame,” Newton said. “Notre Dame hasn’t been relevant in years. They haven’t been relevant for years. You take that 1 national championship with Coach Freeman out of the equation, they have not been relevant for years.”
Cam Newton: "Notre Dame hasn't been relevant in years."Shae Cornette: "They were just in the national championship game one year ago" pic.twitter.com/E59b7FaiAr
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 23, 2026Since the start of the 2014 season — the beginning of the CFP era — Notre Dame has the fifth-best winning percentage of any FBS team (119-37). The Irish have 9 seasons with at least 10 wins in the CFP era. They made Playoff appearances in 2018 and 2020. They played for a BCS national championship in 2012, two years before the format changed.
Though, to be fair to Newton, Notre Dame’s performance in games with significant stakes has been pretty lackluster for several years.
The Irish lost season-opening games to Miami and Texas A&M this past season — the 2 best teams Notre Dame played all year. The run to the CFP title game in 2024 featured a win over a Georgia team starting a backup quarterback for the first time, followed by a win over a famously faceplant-prone Penn State team. Notre Dame lost résumé-building regular-season games to Ohio State in 2023 and 2022.
They were embarrassed in the 2020 ACC Championship Game by Clemson, then embarrassed weeks later by Alabama after getting into the 4-team CFP anyway. They lost to Georgia and Michigan in 2019, ending the season in the Camping World Bowl. They were demolished by Clemson in the CFP semifinals in 2018. They lost to Georgia, Miami, and Stanford in 2017.
During the CFP era, Notre Dame is just 32-27 against AP-ranked opponents. It is 87-10 against everyone else.
To a certain extent, an argument could be made that the criticism levied against James Franklin for so many years at Penn State applies to the Irish under Brian Kelly and then Marcus Freeman as well. Excluding the 3 victories Notre Dame secured during its 2024 Playoff run, the Irish are 5-17 against AP Top 12 teams since the start of the 2014 season. The wins are over Clemson (2020, 2022), USC (2017, 2023), Stanford (2018), and Syracuse (2018).
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