Fiesta Bowl Media Guide: ND vs. OSU

More eyes might be watching Notre Dame and Ohio State battle it out than any other bowl game.

The hype behind Notre Dame and Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl is unbelievable. Notre Dame being the winningest program in ever and Ohio State ranking 4th all time; both of these teams have a historic background to protect.

Despite both of these teams being legendary, they have only played each other five times  with the series record standing at 3-2 in favor of Ohio State. But these teams don’t have to play every year to have a mutual hate for each other. Tony Alford,  Tim Hinton, and Ed Warinner all coached at Notre Dame at one point, but are now in OSU’s corner.

So while Urban Meyer is taking coaches away from Notre Dame, Brian Kelly is taking young talent from the state of Ohio. Notre Dame has 12 players from Ohio on their roster.

While both of these teams have plenty of reasons to hate each other and hold grudges, we have to look at how they actually punched their ticket to Arizona. Ohio State coming into this season was given high respect thanks to being the reigning National Champions, the recruiting class they brought in, and the starters that they retained. But later in the season their strength of schedule was in question. A loss to Michigan State would be enough to knock them out of playoff contention.

Oct 17, 2015; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back C.J. Prosise (20) is pursued by Southern California Trojans cornerback Adoree Jackson (2) and defensive end Greg Townsend Jr. (93) at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Notre Dame was also highly regarded and the new look of C.J. Prosise at running back gave ND fans quite a bit to look forward to. Then a curse of injuries was casted over South Bend. Over the course of the season ND lost nine starters to injuries, including starting QB Malik Zaire in week 2. The Irish still climbed as high as sixth in the rankings until a failed two point conversion cost them their first loss of the season. It wasn’t until the last game of the season that ND was truly considered out of the equation for the playoffs when Stanford beat them by a last second field goal.

Location: University of Phoenix Stadium

Kickoff: 1:00 PM ET

TV: ESPN

Live Stream: WatchESPN.com