Do you realize how many opponents Notre Dame football has faced since 1887? Well, if not you’re going to find out today! Is it even possible to actually rank all of them according to rivalry and what kind of methodology would someone use to achieve such an absurd task? I have good news, I’m not actually ranking them all individually that would be crazy. This is going to be something more light and fun, until we get to the end when it has to get serious, as per tradition. I’ll break teams down by group and go from there.

Teams are listed in their current level, not their level when they played Notre Dame.

Notre Dame records against teams in parentheses

Here is the first group:

The Meaningless Defunct & Disbanded Teams

American Medical (4-0)

Bennett Medical (1-0)

Carlisle (1-0)

Chicago Dental (1-0)

Chicago Medical (1-0)

Chicago Physicians & Surgeons (5-1)

Christian Brothers (1-0)

Creighton (1-0)

Detroit Mercy (2-0)

Englewood High School (2-0)

Goshen (1-0)

Harvard Prep (1-0)

Haskell (5-0)

Highland Views (1-0)

Illinois Cycling Club (1-0)

Indianapolis Light Artillery (0-1)

Kirksville Osteopath (1-0)

Lombard College (3-0)

Loyola University, Chicago (1-0)

Loyola University, New Orleans (1-0)

Marquette (3-0-3)

North Division High (1-0)

Northwestern Law (1-0)

Ohio Medical (4-0)

Pacific (1-0)

Physician & Surgeons (2-1)

Rose Polytechnic (2-0)

Rose-Hulman (1-0)

Rush Medical (3-0-1)

South Bend Howard Park (1-0)

Saint Louis (3-0)

South Bend Athletic Club (2-0-1)

South Bend High (1-0)

St. Bonaventure (1-0)

St. Viator (4-0)

Toledo Athletic Club (1-0)

Western Reserve (1-0)

Notre Dame went 70-3-5 against these teams so you can imagine there aren’t too many memorable moments early in the school’s history. Additionally, the vast majority of these games were shutout Notre Dame victories. A few things to point out, though.

The 3 losses included:

1. A 18-0 loss in 1895 to Indianapolis Light Artillery.

This was the lone loss of a 4-game season in the lone campaign for coach H.G. Hadden. The record book shows that Hadden–an academic transfer from Michigan apparently he was working on a degree but not playing football–actually inserted himself into the game during this loss.

2. 4-0 loss in 1896 to Chicago Physicians & Surgeons.

This is a weird one as Notre Dame beat them 32-0 the prior year and would out-score them 194-0 in an additional 4 victories in the early 1900’s. History shows 1896 was the first year of player/coach Frank Hering–did the team just not gel early on?

3. A 5-0 loss in 1899 to Physicians & Surgeons.

Also another weird one as Notre Dame beat this school 5-0 and 34-0 in the only other two meetings the following two years.

Notre Dame played American Medical 4 times and piled up a combined score of 330-0. The 1905 win featured a school-record 142 points for the good guys. American Medical opened in 1901, became the medical department for Valparaiso in 1902, and was purchased in 1917 to be the medical school for Loyola University. They dropped football after the 1905 season.

Carlisle (Indian Industrial School) is the most successful defunct program in history. During the 1914 meeting with Notre Dame (48-6 win for ND) future Pitt and Stanford head coach Pop Warner was still with Carlisle, although this was well past the years when Jim Thorpe suited up.

Forever Grudge D-III Team

Chicago (0-4)

Technically, the University of Chicago dropped football, brought it back as a club sport, then moved to D-III where it resides today, although in the later stages of the 19th Century and early parts of the 20th Century they were a strong team and founding member of the Big Ten, then called the Western Conference. Notre Dame lost all 4 meetings (1894, 1896, 1897, 1899) by a combined score of 83-11.

One D-III Ghost

Carnegie Mellon (15-4)

Then named Carnegie Tech and a strong program for several years, this wouldn’t need to be mentioned in this article if not for the Tartans’ historic 1926 upset of Notre Dame.

Go to 28:11 for the ND-Carnegie upset.

We’ve mentioned it before on this site, that was the one where Rockne didn’t bother showing up and it was the lone loss on the season costing a National Championship.

The Remaining D-II & D-III teams

Adrian College (1-0)

Albion College (3-1-1)

Alma College (4-0)

Beloit College (5-0-1)

Case Tech (2-0)

Coe College (1-0)

Depauw (8-0)

Franklin (3-0)

Hillsdale (4-0-1)

Kalamazoo (7-0)

Knox College (1-1)

Lake Forest (4-0)

Morningside (2-0)

Morris Harvey (1-0)

Mount Union (1-0)

Ohio Northern (4-0)

Olivet College (3-0)

Wabash (10-1)

Washington & Jefferson (1-0)

Washington-St. Louis (1-0)

Notre Dame went 67-3-3 against these programs. The 3 losses included:

1894 Albion – The only loss from a 4-game season.

1902 Knox – From 6 road games on a 9-game schedule there was this loss, plus to Michigan.

1905 Wabash – The only season until 1928 with more than 3 losses included this defeat at home.

The War-Time All Star Rivalries

Great Lakes Navy (1-2-2)

Iowa Pre-Flight (2-0)

Notre Dame cruised past Iowa Pre-Flight 28-0 in 1942 during Frank Leahy’s 2nd season and barely survived 14-13 the next season in a classic No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup. The Irish lost twice to Great Lakes Navy, once apiece in 1943 and 1945. The former game came at the end of the season, and a week after the win over Iowa Pre-Flight mentioned above. A National Championship was still awarded to Notre Dame because the schedule was insanely tough.

The FCS Teams

Butler (3-0)

Dartmouth (2-0)

Drake (8-0)

Penn (5-0-1)

Princeton (2-0)

South Dakota (5-0)

Valparaiso (1-0)

Yale (0-1)

Notre Dame went 26-1-1 against these programs. The lone loss came in 1914 to Yale. The preceding season was a historic one for Notre Dame, featuring the upset of Army at West Point in the middle of the first major traveling adventure that came to define the program. However, 1914 was no slouch either with trips to New Haven, Sioux Falls, West Point, Chicago, and Syracuse.

Thus far, 69 of the 148 (46.6%) teams Notre Dame has played have been listed accounting for just over 19% of program wins and just 5.1% of all losses.

Not Enough Data Teams

Akron (1-0)

Arizona (2-1)

Arizona State (3-1)

Ball State (1-0)

Baylor (2-0)

Bowling Green (1-0)

California (4-0)

Cincinnati (1-0)

Duke (4-2)

Hawaii (3-0)

Iowa State (1-0)

Kansas (4-1-1)

Louisville (1-1)

Maryland (2-0)

Massachusetts (1-0)

Miami [OH] (2-0)

Minnesota (4-0-1)

Missouri (2-2)

Nevada (2-0)

New Mexico (1-0)

NC State (1-2)

Ole Miss (1-1)

Oregon (1-0-1)

Oregon State (0-2)

Rice (5-0)

Rutgers (5-0)

San Diego State (1-0)

SMU (10-3)

South Carolina (3-1)

Syracuse (6-3)

Temple (3-0)

Texas A&M (3-2)

TCU (1-0)

Tulane (8-0)

UCLA (4-0)

UConn (0-1)

Vanderbilt (3-0)

Virginia (3-0)

Virginia Tech (2-1)

Wake Forest (5-0)

Washington State (2-0)

West Virginia (4-0)

Western Michigan (3-0)

The Irish are 115-23-3 against this large swath of teams who they haven’t played all that much. 38 out of the 43 teams have faced Notre Dame 5 or fewer times. The teams faced the most from the group include Duke (6 games), Kansas (6 games), Tulane (8 games), Syracuse (9 games), and SMU (13 games). The Irish haven’t faced the Jayhawks since 1999, the Green Wave since 1971, and the Mustangs since 1989.

The Blue Devils and Orange will see an increase in meetings now with the ACC deal.

What are some of the most memorable games against these programs? I think these would qualify:

Arizona State 2013-14: Fun Shamrock Series and a crazy loss at Tempe.

Duke 2016: I mean, I still remember this one.

Hawaii 1991, ’97, 2008: Two scary close games and Clausen’s near-perfect bowl game.

Iowa State 2019: Recency bias, but a good bowl win.

Missouri 1970, ’72, ’78: A primetime win in ’70 against Den Devine, a tough loss in ’72 was the only blemish from the first 8 games, and a shocking shutout loss at home in ’78 to begin the season with Dan Devine now coach of the Irish.

NC State 2003, 2016: A bad bowl loss and hurricane mar this series.

Ole Miss 1977: The only defeat in a championship season.

Oregon State 2001, 2004: A pair of ugly bowl losses and one of only two programs Notre Dame has faced at least twice and not beaten.

Texas A&M 1987, 1992, 1993: A trio of entertaining bowl games with Notre Dame winning the last two.

Major bowl wins against A&M were all the rage in the early 90’s.

West Virginia 1988: A title game victory stands alone.

The Once Fun Ones

Illinois (11-0-1)

Indiana (23-5-1)

Iowa (13-8-3)

Nebraska (7-8-1)

Wisconsin (8-6-2)

This group of Midwestern teams makes up 97 games in Notre Dame’s history. Yet, Illinois and Iowa haven’t been faced since 1968, Wisconsin since 1964, Indiana just once since 1958, and while there was a home-and-home with Nebraska back in 2000-01, there’s only the 1973 Orange Bowl after the last regular season game back in 1943.

It amazes me how little these geographically similar teams have not faced Notre Dame hardly at all for the better part of half a century.

Awaiting Payback

Florida (1-0)

Georgia (0-3)

Houston (1-0)

USF (0-1)

Utah (1-0)

Washington (8-0)

This is a fun group. Each of Florida (’92 Sugar Bowl), Houston (’79 Cotton Bowl), and Utah (lost as 5.5-point favorites in 2010) have lost meaningful games in their only matchups against Notre Dame.

Notre Dame lost their only meeting against USF back in 2011 when the aliens took over campus.

The Irish are now 0-3 against Georgia following the loss last year. The Dawgs are the other team with Oregon State mentioned above with 2+ games and no Irish wins.

Lastly, we have Washington who are win-less in 8 meetings against Notre Dame, tied for the most without a victory with Depauw, Drake, and Tulane.

The Emerging Rivals?

BYU (6-2)

Clemson (1-3)

LSU (7-5)

Notre Dame has played BYU 8 times since 1992 which isn’t nothing. The programs originally signed a 6-game deal back in 2010 but have only played 3 of those games. There are rumors the series will begin picking up again in the future with a possible date in Las Vegas.

2020 will see the third game in 6 years against Clemson and until further notice this will be the premier matchup on the schedule for Notre Dame. The programs are set to meet in the regular season in 2022, 2023, 2027, 2028, 2031, 2034, and 2037 with the ACC agreement.

The LSU rivalry has received a jolt of prestige with a few bowl games in a little over a decade. Signing up for some regular season games is needed to keep things alive.

Lots of Games, Little Rivalry

Air Force (24-6)

Army (39-8-4)

Georgia Tech (28-6-1)

North Carolina (18-2)

Northwestern (38-9-2)

These 5 teams constitute 185 games played against Notre Dame, for 14.2% of the total and yet I don’t think anyone would call them a rival at this point in time. From 1913 until 1947 you could make the case Army was Notre Dame’s biggest and most important rival. But, no more.

The winning percentage is pretty strong against this group, too. The Irish have won 81.3% against these 5 programs and the team that has the most wins against Notre Dame (Northwestern with 9) has only achieved that feat twice since 1962.

Few Games, Bigger Rivalry

Alabama (5-2)

Colorado (3-2)

Florida State (3-6)

Ohio State (2-4)

Oklahoma (9-2)

Penn State (9-9-1)

Tennessee (4-4)

Texas (9-3)

I have a feeling many of these teams would be among Notre Dame fans’ most-wanted opponents to schedule from the Power 5 conferences. There aren’t many games among this group–Penn State leads the way with 19 meetings while Texas (12) and Oklahoma (11) are next in line–but there’s a deep history of big, meaningful games throughout this list.

Colorado is probably the one team that sticks out from this group, although a trip to Boulder would be nice–Notre Dame has only been there once with the series opener in 1983. Of course, the last 3 meetings include major bowl games with the Irish losing the last 2 and this fall will be 25 years since these programs faced each other.

A return to Neyland Stadium remains a high priority for Irish fans.

Give me three opportunities of a home-and-home series and I’d pick Penn State, Tennessee, and Alabama from this group.

The Real 9 Ones

Okay, these are the real rivalries right now for Notre Dame. I used 6 categories below to rank them using a 0 through 5 system, the greater the points the bigger the rivalry.

Pain of Losing

Thrill of Victory

Competitiveness

Rivalry Health

Continuity

Hatred

#9 Purdue (58-26-2)

1.9+1.4+1.9+1.6+3.1+2.1 = 12.0 points

This rivalry has been in the dumps for quite a while. This fall will mark the 6th straight season without a matchup and when it was played Purdue–while making things difficult at times–hadn’t notched a win over the last 7 meetings. There’s hope for the future as a 6-game series was announced from 2021 through 2028. After that, who knows?

#8 Pitt (47-21)

2.4+1.6+2.9+1.2+3.3+2.3 = 13.7 points

This is similar to Purdue, except the ACC deal gives Pittsburgh a little more of a spotlight in rivalry terms. The Panthers have also been a little more competitive, including 4 victories over the last 10 meetings.

#7 Michigan State (49-29-1)

2.9+2.1+3.9+1.4+2.1+2.7 = 15.1 points

There’s no doubt that most Irish fans care more about this series than Purdue or Pitt. There’s also a recent era of success for the Spartans and an agonizing loss (2010) that hurts more than anything Purdue or Pitt have inflicted on the Irish in recent memory. Yet, the future of this series is up in the air. Historically, it should be a spot or two higher at the very least.

#6 Boston College (16-9)

4.4+2.2+3.1+1.7+3.0+3.8 = 18.2 points

Among the top 9 rivalries, this has by far the fewest games played. What it lacks in history it has made up for with some punch. You don’t ever want to lose to BC and 1993 and 2002–not to mention a 6-game losing streak not that long ago–have left wounds.

Chest pains.

Still, Notre Dame has taken the last 7 meetings, and while the ACC agreement means the Eagles will remain in the sights of the Irish, this needs a lot more ingredients to be a major rivalry.

#6 Navy (79-13-1)

4.5+1.2+0.9+3.2+4.8+3.6 = 18.2 points

It’s annoying, we don’t like playing the game, but it’s not going away any time soon. Plus, you truly do not ever want to lose to Navy pretty much more than any other rival. I’d be curious to see where the Middies would fall on this list if they got the Purdue or Michigan State treatment.

#4 Miami (18-8-1)

4.2+2.9+3.6+2.9+2.7+4.3 = 20.6 points

The Hurricanes probably wouldn’t be this high if it wasn’t for the 2017 game. Prior to that debacle, the Irish had won 4 straight in the series stretching back to the “final” game in 1990 and then 3 more after that including somehow a win in 2016. Yet, there are still so many Notre Dame fans who view Miami as an abhorrent enemy and it still lingers today.

The teams won’t meet again in the regular season until 2024 so that’s a 7-year wait. We’ll see 7 total meetings from 2024-2037 which will help the rivalry. So would Miami stopping from spinning their wheels in the ACC like they have for years.

#3 Stanford (21-13)

4.3+3.7+4.1+3.3+3.8+3.1 = 23.3 points

I may not like it, you may not like it, but the decision to add Stanford to the annual schedule has worked out just about as well as Notre Dame could’ve hoped. The Cardinal inflicted big upsets in 1990 and 1992 and since they have been on the schedule every year beginning in 1997 the series is a close 13-10 in Notre Dame’s favor.

The competition angle here is tough to ignore. Stanford has been ranked heading into the matchup against Notre Dame on 11 occasions and 8 of those games have come since 2010. The Cardinal are 5-3 in those games since 2010 and are 8-3 all-time against the Irish when Stanford finishes the year ranked.

#2 USC (49-37-5)

4.0+4.2+3.8+3.4+4.8+4.0 = 24.2 points

I went into this believing USC would easily take the top spot but not today! I largely lay the blame for this at the feet of the Trojans who have only a pair of Pac-12 titles since 2012 and have finished better than 19th in the polls just twice over that time frame.

Notre Dame is 6-2 over the last 8 meetings, too. This rivalry has typically been more mature and less about hatred so when one side is winning most of the games it tends to recede back without much animosity, as much as the history suggests this should be Notre Dame’s top rival.

#1 Michigan (18-25-1)

4.7+4.9+4.8+3.6+1.6+5.0 = 24.6 points

To play or not to play, that is the question. There’s no other program in the country that elicits so much vitriol from Notre Dame fans than the Michigan Wolverines.

This graphic from the NYT shows 8 Notre Dame things to 3 for Michigan.

In terms of hatred, they garnered the only 5.0 grade among the 9 rivals. Michigan also took home the highest grade for pain of losing, thrill of victory, competitiveness, and rivalry health. Ohio State and Michigan have the more popular rivalry among themselves, but the Buckeyes have won 8 straight, 15 out of the last 16, and 17 out of the last 19 matchups in that series.

Notre Dame and Michigan has been far, far more bitter and contentious. Since the 1909 meeting, Notre Dame leads the series 18-17-1. Take any slice of years since those early games and the series is damn close to .500 overall.

The problem is, we don’t know when the series will be played again. And yet, even with the lowest continuity score among the 9 rivals Michigan still came out on top with the highest overall score. I thought that spoke volumes about wanting to beat and not be beaten by this wretched school. And honestly, isn’t that the defining characteristic of a rival?