Amid notable schools like Notre Dame declining bowl games after being left out of the College Football Playoff, No. 14 Vanderbilt, led by head coach Clark Lea, assured reporters and fans that his team planned to savor their game against Iowa in the ReliaQuest Bowl.

“I can’t speak to (Notre Dame’s) process, but we love playing football here,” Lea told reporters Sunday. “We get a chance to close out a special season with a special group of players on a great bowl stage in a great city against a really tough opponent.”

Vanderbilt (10-2) was widely considered to be on the bubble with an outside chance at the College Football Playoff, but fell behind No. 13 Texas (9-3), No. 12 BYU (11-2) and No. 11 Notre Dame (10-2), all of which were left on the outside looking in. Vanderbilt had its first-ever 10-win regular season and had fewer overall losses than both Texas and playoff-bound No. 9 Alabama (10-3). However, the Commodores lost head-to-head matchups to both and were subsequently ranked behind them.

Vanderbilt had a 4-2 record against teams that were ranked at the time the game was played. The Commodores’ strength of record ranked 11th in ESPN’s College Football Power Index. They were sandwiched between Texas at 12th and Alabama at 10th. Yet both ended ranked higher in the final poll as Vanderbilt dropped both away trips against its SEC powerhouse foes.

This was not lost on Lea.

“We happen to be on the wrong side of (the CFP) in this moment,” Lea said. “But that’s no one’s fault except for our own. We had our opportunities, and we didn’t do enough. We are not victims in this process. Our ownership is in coming up short.”

As for his expectations that star quarterback Diego Pavia and tight end Eli Stowers participate in the bowl? Unquestioned. Many players in recent years have opted out of non-CFP bowls to limit injury risks and prepare for future ventures. Pavia is expected to be a top Heisman candidate, while Stowers was one of The Athletic’s notable Ten Rising NFL Draft 2026 Prospects.

“I don’t have any reason not to (believe they’re playing),” Lea said about the Commodores’ game on Dec. 31, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. “Obviously, they’ve got great futures ahead of them, but they’re also great competitors, and that’s what has made them so special here. So, I anticipate them playing. I haven’t had conversations to lead me otherwise.”

These sentiments contrast with those of Notre Dame. Like the Commodores, the 10-2 Fighting Irish found themselves out of the playoff, ranked 11th. Also like Vanderbilt, Notre Dame has lost two head-to-head games against teams ranked ahead of them, when it dropped its first two games of the season to No. 10 Miami and No. 7 Texas A&M.

Unlike Vanderbilt, the Irish released a statement withdrawing from any bowl consideration this year as they turn their attention to “hoping to bring the 12th national title to South Bend in 2026.”

Notre Dame had been ranked ahead of Miami at No. 10 in the penultimate CFP rankings before conference championship weekend, when neither school played. A ranking that, if held, would have put Notre Dame in.

However, after No. 11 BYU lost convincingly to Texas Tech in the Big 12 title game, the committee flipped Notre Dame and Miami, giving the Hurricanes the spot due to the Week 1 head-to-head result.

Before the announcement that the Fighting Irish were withdrawing from all bowls, Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacque spoke with ESPN’s Jen Lada.

“Utter disbelief, shock and sadness,” Bevacqua told Lada. “This is a team that felt they had the rug pulled out from underneath them … No disrespect to any of the other teams, (we) are simply frustrated by the process.”

Bevacqua continued with a curt statement about the validity of CFP rankings before the final official poll.

“[A] farce and total waste of time,” he said.

Regardless of other schools’ vexations with the rankings, Vanderbilt and Lea still see meaning in finishing this season. The goal for most teams in any year, especially SEC teams, is to win everything. Though Lea has made sure his group understands its own shortcomings in that goal, the purpose hasn’t changed. Vanderbilt is here to play football.

“I’m not going to say that it wasn’t important to this group to have a chance to play for a national championship,” Lea said. “That’s something we’ve talked about since Jan. 7 (2025). But we are not entitled to anything, and we’re not victimized by any process or any committee. This is about ownership over what we’ve created. And the opportunity we created for ourselves is to go and know exactly when our season’s going to be finished, and that’s Dec. 31 in Tampa against Iowa.

“These guys are excited for that. They’re not disappointed about it. They don’t have their heads down. We own the fact that we didn’t do enough, and we celebrate the fact that we have a great stage, a great bowl, a great opponent to finish this historic year off.”