Discrimination is still strong, my fellow Hibernians. ‘Merica is not being kind to us.

Leaving the University of Notre Dame out of the College Football Playoff is like listing your top 12 English playwrights of the 16th century and not mentioning Shakespeare.

Yes, yes, I get it, it’s not just the best 12 teams in the CFP but a formula that includes conference champions similar to basketball’s “March Madness.” I guess this is what bracket-makers had in mind, trying to capture the magic of the world’s greatest postseason tournament. But if you’re to believe the blogosphere today, ain’t nobody goin’ for the Cinderellas.

Where you stand depends on where you sit, and I’m sure if I were a fan of Tulane or BYU I’d be praising the system I and seemingly everyone is maligning. (This year I fell victim the exact scenario I described last December.) I’ll gladly eat crow if we end up with a Cinderella winner or at least one who’d give Goliath a run, but to me it seems unlikely in a sport so greatly based on size and physicality.

What stuns me the most is the seeming loss of revenue here. Never mind fairness. The Texases and Notre Dames of the world gotta be bigger draws than the “Group of Five” conference teams, no? This ain’t a charity; it’s a business, right? I thought with the NIL deals (small steps as they were) we were finally admitting this. Seems to me like a pretty poor business decision but maybe their quants know something I don’t.

This was the year I thought Notre Dame finally could have beaten an Alabama or an Ohio State but I guess I’ll have to rely on another team for that bit of Schadenfreude.

It is the season for miracles.