What started as GameDay hype has quickly turned into a fun debate. College GameDay’s Pat McAfee turned the spotlight from the national title game between Indiana and Miami to Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman joking about his recent “alleged” wrestling meet fight incident. That resulted in Freeman coming back and stealing the show.

“We don’t do any fighting,” ESPN analyst Pat McAfee said on College GameDay, to which Marcus Freeman fired back with sarcasm, “Alleged.”

This isn’t the first time Pat McAfee has taken a playful shot at a fellow guest or host. Last year in July, when Kirk Herbstreit travelled from Eugene to Texas for the Longhorns vs. Oklahoma Sooners game, he completed his trip in a convertible. So when someone suggested that Herbstreit should be declared governor for his effort, McAfee got the perfect response to it.

“A mayor doesn’t get this kind of stuff,” McAfee said. “He’s governor. He’s got to be president.”

However, this time it was a bit serious. The fighting incident took place on January 3, 2026, at the wrestling tournament at the AI Smith Invitational at Mishawaka High School, where Marcus Freeman’s son Vinny was competing for Penn High School. Both Freeman and his wife, Joanna, went to support their son.

But later on, another school assistant wrestling coach, Chris Fleeger, accused Freeman of shoving him during the event. This prompted a police report and an investigation. They reviewed the gym video footage and conducted an investigation, but nothing came out as intentional or serious enough to be a crime.

The prosecutor’s office said it found no evidence of criminal battery and determined it could not prove anything beyond a reasonable doubt.

But they acknowledged that some physical contact did occur between Fleeger and Freeman, but it was not intentional and didn’t sit well with Fleeger’s initial plea. As he first said, Freeman made a “two-handed push” without any provocation. What’s even more interesting is that both of Fleeger’s witnesses gave different versions of what happened that night.

One said Marcus Freeman struck Fleeger with an open hand, and another said the blow pushed him backward. Now, both statements didn’t match the video, so in the end, Freeman was found not guilty. Even with such serious allegations, Notre Dame didn’t turn its back on him.

Even before the final verdict, the program backed Marcus Freeman and his family. With that immense trust, even he couldn’t hold back his contentment.

“First of all, I want to thank Notre Dame for its support and its immediate response to this matter. I’m grateful for their trust and defense of me, even before the video evidence was released,” Freeman said. “I also want to thank the Penn High School administration, the community, and countless others who have reached out to me and my family and me.

With that, Freeman also got real about their playoff snub.

Marcus Freeman’s tough words on CFP snub

Marcus Freeman takes the spotlight as he appears as an analyst on ESPN’s College GameDay. There’s no doubt left that Miami’s presence in the title game hurts Notre Dame the most, as they are the reason that the Irish couldn’t enter the game. It was the Hurricanes that pushed them out of the final CFP spot.

Later on, that snub caused drama between the ACC and Notre Dame. Many raised questions about their independent status and even suggested that Marcus Freeman join a conference so that this doesn’t happen in the future. They even opted out of the bowl game after that. But through it all, Freeman and his team kept intact and processed the snub.

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“The day we found out, the response was one thing. After 24 hours, the ability to get in front of your team and say, ‘You know what, we have to move forward,'” Freeman said. “We left doubt this time.”

He even makes it clear how they are going to fire back: “It’s up to us to leave no doubt.”

Well, Freeman’s words make sense. The last-moment snub comes in through the tough losses they faced against Miami and Texas A&M, which eventually reached the playoffs. So now he is making sure Notre Dame doesn’t come up short in those margins.

Now, let’s wait and see how well the 2026 season turns out for him.