Cam Newton argues against Notre Dame making College Football Playoff, calls Irish 'college football's Dallas Cowboys'

In an appearance on ESPN’s “First Take” on Friday morning, Cam Newton went scorched earth about the College Football Playoff. And amidst his taking a flamethrower to teams that aren’t historically strong football brands, Newton also turned it on arguably the biggest brand of them all: Notre Dame.

And Newton was unequivocal in his opinion: Notre Dame isn’t really that good. Though the Irish are currently ranked in the Top 5, went 11-1, and are in line to get an at-large bid, Newton seems to think they’re getting massively overvalued.

“Nobody wants to see Notre Dame in there, either, bro,” Newton said. “Notre Dame is college football’s Dallas Cowboys. Like, nobody wants to see them. Do they have a legacy organization and program? Rudy, Rudy! Yeah, that’s about the last time we’ve seen these type of things. There’s no such thing as a Cinderella story in college football. Every time you try to root for the underdog, they get smashed. Come on, now.”

While Notre Dame hasn’t won a national title since 1988, the Irish did make the four-team CFP twice and played in the BCS national championship game. All three of those games ended up with the Irish losing in generally lopsided fashion.

But Newton found pushback from some fellow ESPNers on the desk, namely Ryan Clark, who admitted some bias as his son plays at Notre Dame currently.

Clark defended the idea of the Irish making the CFP, though he really didn’t quibble with the assessment that, at least culturally, Notre Dame occupies a similar space to the Cowboys.

“I want to see my son play in the championship, so that would be an excellent outing for me if Notre Dame makes it,” Clark said.

He continued, pointing out that Notre Dame has a win on the road against an SEC team, beating Texas A&M at Kyle Field in the opener. While Newton quickly pointed out the Aggies finished eighth in the SEC, Clark added that plenty of SEC teams — including his alma mater, LSU — went to Kyle Field and still lost when Notre Dame didn’t.

“This is what I know, because I make every game, I go to every single game my son plays: All I know is we was at Texas A&M and we walked out as a winner,” Clark said. “There was other SEC teams that went in there and got their doors blown off. My actual alma mater went in there and lost.”