The Five Teams Notre Dame Football Should Play Every Season

Notre Dame has a lot of rivals. If we had it our way, these would be the schools and programs that Notre Dame football should play every season.

When you have a long and rich history like Notre Dame football, you have a tendency to create a lot of rivalries. Some of them have staying power, and others come and go with time.

There are tons of teams in Notre Dame’s history that could have made this list.

However, plenty of teams won’t make the list of five that Notre Dame should play every season. In the early part of Notre Dame’s history, a program like Army would have made the cut, but don’t now. Other schools, like Boston College, and Pitt make sense because of their being in the ACC. However, they don’t make the Notre Dame season special the way other teams do.

It’s important to balance recency bias, as well as a form of historic nostalgia when thinking of this list. Modern rivals, while important now, may not be important in ten seasons. This list is about the teams that Notre Dame should never miss out on scheduling, year in and year out. It’s not about who’s fun right now.

Now, Notre Dame being an independent doesn’t have to play any one team in a given year. Other than playing five ACC teams on rotation on a year-by-year basis, there are no restrictions on Notre Dame’s schedule.

So, while there are some teams that are exciting to play for a period of time, you don’t need to always see them on the schedule. The following five teams are the five teams, however, that Notre Dame needs to play every year, for the season to feel complete.