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Notre Dame Football: The 5 Teams the Irish Have Dominated

By Daniel Morrison

NORMAN, OK - OCTOBER 27: Manti Te'o #5 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Tom Wort #21 of the Oklahoma Sooners talk after the game at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on October 27, 2012 in Norman, Oklahoma. The Fighting Irish defeated the Sooners 30-13. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
NORMAN, OK - OCTOBER 27: Manti Te'o #5 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Tom Wort #21 of the Oklahoma Sooners talk after the game at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on October 27, 2012 in Norman, Oklahoma. The Fighting Irish defeated the Sooners 30-13. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images) /
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Indiana (22-3)

SOUTH BEND, INDIANA – NOVEMBER 16: The Notre Dame Fighting Irish sing after beating the Navy Midshipmen 52-20 at Notre Dame Stadium on November 16, 2019 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
SOUTH BEND, INDIANA – NOVEMBER 16: The Notre Dame Fighting Irish sing after beating the Navy Midshipmen 52-20 at Notre Dame Stadium on November 16, 2019 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /

In a way, it’s a bit surprising that Notre Dame has only played Indiana 25 times. From a regional perspective, it makes perfect sense. It’s easy on travel costs, and there’s built in local interest. That’s the role that Purdue has filled for Notre Dame over the years. Those two have met 86 times.

Now, maybe there isn’t room for two in-state rivals, especially when you have rivals across the country. Still, the two haven’t met since 1991. Add in the ACC Deal, and Notre Dame and Indiana likely won’t meet for many more years to come.

This doesn’t give the Hoosiers much of a chance to change their luck against the Irish. Still, if history matter at all, this might be for the better. Notre Dame has won their last 6 games over Indiana. That’s a 6 game winning streak, which dates back to the Frank Leahy era of Notre Dame football. Their longest overall winning streak being 14 games.

Given those lower travel costs, it’s not surprising that the two met for the majority of their meetings between 1899 and 1933. During that stretch Indiana would secure 2 of their 3 wins.

The games themselves weren’t incredibly competitive between Notre Dame and Indiana when they did play. Over the course of their 25 meetings, they’ve played in a grand total of 3 one score games.

The lack of competitiveness between the Irish and Hoosiers is probably why fans didn’t clamor for this series to be played consistently. Without that clamor, Notre Dame and Purdue became close in-state rivals, and Indiana was put in Notre Dame’s rear view mirror. There were simply more important Big 10 rivals to pay attention to. Add in a desire from Notre Dame to be a national brand, not a regional one, and you can understand why the Hoosiers haven’t made it to the schedule in nearly 30 seasons.

Simply put, Notre Dame has dominated their series with Indiana to the point where it was boring, and not worth keeping up an in-state rivalry. Maybe it’s better to leave this game in the past.

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