Notre Dame Football: 5 biggest ‘What If’ losses in Irish history

The Notre Dame football program would love to have the outcome of these games reversed.

Part of having 11 National Championships and nearly 900 wins as a program is an expectation of success. That expectation from fans and the administration means that mediocrity — which might be tolerated elsewhere — isn’t tolerated within the Notre Dame football program.

Generally, that’s a good thing. It leads to more sustained success, because failure isn’t tolerated. However, it means that when Notre Dame loses, the loss has more impact than it would to a less prestigious program. Historically, Notre Dame losing isn’t the difference between the Birmingham Bowl or the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl. It isn’t even the difference between making a bowl game or not making a bowl game.

Instead, a loss for Notre Dame can be the difference between a National Championship or not.

This means that when Notre Dame losses, it changes the course of the entire college football season.

Furthermore, given that Notre Dame plays a lot of other traditional powers every season, the teams they lose to have often gone on to find their own glory. They’ve gone onto become National Champions themselves.

Here is the list of biggest ‘what if’ losses in the history of Notre Dame football. The outcomes of these games completely changed the course of the seasons they were played in.

Also, no College Football Playoff or major bowl games made the list– including de facto National Championship Games like the 1981 Sugar Bowl. Those are too obvious.