It was announced on Tuesday that Notre Dame was going to be forced to vacate 21 wins from the 2012 and 2013 seasons after multiple academic violations where uncovered involving up to nine players from those two teams.
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Later in the day, Brian Kelly responded and he let his anger at the NCAA show through.
"I was always hopeful that we wouldn't be at this day, but here's what I can tell you: We did the right thing. i'm proud of our support staff, our academic support staff. I'm proud of the people that represented us here at Notre Dame during this time.
We will beat all those teams, so you can put an asterisk next to it. If that makes you feel better, then that's fine with me."
Kelly was also rather blunt when asked if the violations and vacating of wins affected his job status.
I asked Brian Kelly if he thinks he will return next season as Notre Dame's head coach: "I have no reason to believe that I'm not."
— Angelo Di Carlo (@angdicarlo) November 22, 2016
At least for Kelly, the vacated wins are somewhat important, as Nick Saban is now close to passing him for the active wins lead among FBS coaches.
Notre Dame will have to vacate some wins from 2012 & 2013, per NCAA sanctions. Brian Kelly's 230 wins are most by active FBS head coaches pic.twitter.com/q6CYSQCy01
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 22, 2016
UPDATE: NCAA just ruled Notre Dame will vacate 21 wins, dropping his total to 209
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 22, 2016
Notre Dame is appealing the ruling, which Kelly called "excessive". The biggest penalty was the Irish being forced to vacate all 12 wins from the 2012 season, which saw them go to the BCS National Championship Game. They lost that game in epic blowout fashion to Alabama.
