Notre Dame Narrowly Misses NCAA Tournament
Notre Dame’s NCAA Tournament fate was sealed last Tuesday when the Fighting Irish failed to beat Boston College in the opening round of the ACC Baseball Tournament.
Shawn Stiffler’s club entered the week on the bubble of the Field of 64 and needed at least one win to give themselves a legitimate shot at postseason play. Stolen bids push bubble teams out of the tournament and that’s what Notre Dame experienced by not taking care of business against the Eagles.
The Fighting Irish will end the 2025 campaign 32-21, 14-16 and with the nation’s No. 48 RPI.
Why did Notre Dame miss its third consecutive NCAA Tournament despite winning 16 of its last 20 games?
It wasn’t the ACC Tournament upset but the start of conference play. Notre Dame was swept by Wake Forest and Georgia Tech and dropped series to Clemson, Florida State, Virginia Tech and Boston College.
If the NCAA Tournament is the goal, Notre Dame can’t afford to start 4-14 in ACC play. Notre Dame finished as one of the hottest teams in college baseball, but still couldn’t dig out of that hole.
Now, it’s certainly worth mentioning that Clemson, Florida State and Wake Forest all started ranked in the preseason top 25, while Georgia Tech finished ranked and regular season ACC champs. The Irish also started the ACC play with road trips to Wake Forest and Clemson in addition to playing its first 17 games away from Frank Eck Stadium - the perk of being a Midwestern school.
It was interesting to see some national folks push Virginia over Notre Dame to make the NCAA Tournament. Virginia finished 32-18, 16-11, but there are a few significant notes associated with that. The Cavaliers didn’t play Clemson, Louisville, North Carolina or Wake Forest and then had their three-game series at Florida State canceled. Virginia finished No. 64 in RPI, which is a pretty big difference between Notre Dame and other teams on the bubble.
Where does Notre Dame go from here?
The first order of business is retention. Notre Dame needs to make sure its top players stay in South Bend and don’t head South for potentially greener pastures. There will be natural attrition from those who don’t play, but Stiffler’s program can’t afford its top players to bolt, especially with Notre Dame finishing the year with some momentum.
Notre Dame put the building blocks in place for future years this spring:
Sophomore catcher Carson Tinney: .348, 17 home runs, 53 RBI, 13 doubles, .753 slg%
Freshman INF Bino Watters: .317, 9 home runs, 39 RBI, 9 doubles, .549 slg%
Freshman INF Parker Brzustewicz: .301, 36 RBI, 9 doubles, 2 triples and 56 hits (team leader)
Junior RHP Rory Fox: 4-4, 3.58 ERA, 65.1 IP, 64 strikeouts, 27 walks, .187 opponent batting avg.
Sophomore RHP Jack Radel: 7-4, 3.58 ERA, 70.1 IP, 60 strikeouts, 18 walks, .218 opponent batting avg.
What to watch moving forward?
Outside of the Transfer Portal additions and subtractions, the House Settlement will be interesting to follow. Currently, college baseball programs get 11.7 scholarships, and that could increase significantly if the settlement passes.
Notre Dame certainly doesn’t have the NIL programs of the SEC or other ACC programs for baseball, but the ability to pitch a full ride plus baseball’s piece in revenue sharing could really make a big different for a program like Notre Dame. The Irish have recruiting at a high level considering the restrictions and that could really pave the way to get a couple more difference makers a year.
The other piece is will Notre Dame change some of its scheduling early in the year? There is merit for Notre Dame to maintain playing mid-majors early due to a lack of outdoor practices most years heading into the season combined with playing the first quarter of its season on the road.
Beefing up the non-conference schedule could also be beneficial if they steal a couple of wins over top-25 programs to give some wiggle room in ACC play. Notre Dame played just one major conference team (Iowa) during its first 10 games this season. They don’t have to go crazy and schedule LSU or Texas, but adding a Kansas, TCU or UConn could be a positive.
And I’ve written this before, but Notre Dame needs to help the program out with travel. Notre Dame should be charting flights for the program over bussing to O’Hare, flying to its destination, flying back to O’Hare and then bussing back to campus. That’s a lot of wasted time and it takes a toll over the season, especially if there are connecting flights or long bus rides to get to the school they are playing.
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