SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua said the ACC engaged in a sustained, targeted social media campaign against the school's football team late in the season that has forever changed the relationship between Notre Dame and the league.
Bevacqua said the ACC, in the process of promoting football member Miami for College Football Playoff inclusion, also damaged Notre Dame, which lost the season opener to the Hurricanes. Miami made the CFP field as the No. 10 seed, while Notre Dame dropped from No. 9 to No. 11 in the final standings and was left out. The Irish on Sunday declined an invitation to play in the Pop-Tarts Bowl, through an ACC tie-in, and ended their season at 10-2.
Notre Dame is an independent in football but has 24 of its sports teams in the ACC. In 2014, the Irish entered into a scheduling agreement with the ACC where they play at least five conference members per season.
"I understand they have to stand up for their teams in football," Bevacqua said. "We just think there's other ways to do it, and it has created damage. I'm not going to shy away from that, and that's just not me speaking. People a lot more important at this university than me feel the same way. So I think it has done some real damage, and I think the ACC knows that."
Bevacqua outlined a multiweek social media campaign, during which he communicated with the ACC. He said an initial post from the ACC's official X account that appeared on Nov. 10, which included a side-by-side comparison of Miami and Notre Dame, caught his attention but attributed it to an individual staffer overstepping.
"Quite frankly, I was kind of expecting a phone call saying, 'Hey, sorry about that, it won't happen again,'" Bevacqua said. "But then it did happen again, and we started to communicate with the ACC, texts that I sent, emails that I sent, and it continued to happen."
Bevacqua said he spoke with ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, and while he didn't detail their phone conversation, he expressed Notre Dame's displeasure with the social media posts. Another X post from the ACC account on Nov. 17 showed posts from media members citing Miami's head-to-head edge against Notre Dame.
"We were definitely being targeted," Bevacqua said. "And for better or for worse, we have a different relationship with the ACC than any other team in college football, other than the [football] teams that are in the ACC. Because we're in the ACC for 24 sports, we have a scheduling agreement with the ACC. The ACC does wonderful things for Notre Dame, but we bring tremendous football value to the ACC, and we didn't understand why you would go out of your way to try to damage us in this process."
Phillips on Monday released a statement, in response to comments Bevacqua made on "The Dan Patrick Show," that read in part, "The University of Notre Dame is an incredibly valued member of the ACC and there is tremendous respect and appreciation for the entire institution. With that said, when it comes to football, we have a responsibility to support and advocate for all 17 of our football-playing member institutions, and I stand behind our conference efforts to do just that leading up to the College Football Playoff committee selections on Sunday. At no time was it suggested by the ACC that Notre Dame was not a worthy candidate for inclusion in the field."
After the initial tweet comparing Miami and Notre Dame's profiles, the ACC had similar posts about other CFP contenders, including Alabama and BYU. On Dec. 1, the ACC account had a post titled "Head to Head Matters" with Miami and Notre Dame, while several other posts mentioned Notre Dame but also Alabama and BYU. Phillips did not disparage Notre Dame in any of his media interviews leading up to the selections. The ACC Network, which is owned by ESPN and generally handles its own programming, re-aired the Miami-Notre Dame game more than a dozen times last week, which led to more communication between Bevacqua and Phillips, sources said.
Bevacqua has not communicated with Phillips since the selections, saying he has only spoken with SEC commissioner Greg Sankey -- whom he talks to regularly -- about the CFP format and process. Bevacqua said "all things can be healed" and that while he's not necessarily looking for an apology from the ACC, he will "sit down with ACC leadership and have a very frank, honest, hopefully productive conversation."
Notre Dame is tied into the ACC's grant of media rights, which run through 2036.
"Up until this moment, I think the relationship between Notre Dame and the ACC has been unbelievably healthy and mutually beneficial," Bevacqua said. "That's, I think, one of the reasons why we were so flabbergasted by this."
ESPN senior writer Andrea Adelson contributed to this report.