College Football Playoff bracket live updates: Full bracket, matchups revealed as Alabama, Miami make the field; Notre Dame out

“My feelings and the feelings here are just shock and, really, an absolute sense of sadness for our student-athletes,” Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua told Yahoo Sports about an hour after the rankings reveal on Sunday. “Overwhelming shock and sadness. Like a collective feeling that we were all just punched in the stomach.”

During the interview, Bevacqua called for an end to the CFP’s weekly ranking shows, describing them as a “farce” and saying that they provided “false” hope to Irish administrators, fans, coach Marcus Freeman and staff and, most notably, the players.

“There is no explanation that could possibly be given to explain the outcome,” Bevacqua said. “As I said to Marcus, one thing is for sure: Any rankings or show prior to this last one is an absolute joke and a waste of time. Why put these young student-athletes through these false emotions just to pull the rug out from underneath them having not played a game in two weeks and then a group of people in a room shatter their dreams without explanation?

“We feel like the playoff was stolen from our student-athletes.”

Read more from Ross Dellenger right here.