There aren’t many years where the Notre Dame football team finds themselves left out of bowl season. They have appeared in 41 bowl games and 40 of those have come since New Year’s Day 1970.
The Fighting Irish have played to a record of 20-21 in bowl season with 11 claimed national championships, four of those clinched by bowl game wins (1924, 1973, 1977, 1988), but are 0-1 in BCS national championships and 0-2 in College Football Playoff games.
Even more than just making a bowl game appearance, 19 of their 41 appearances have been in the big four New Year’s Day bowl games; The Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, and Sugar Bowl.
The school’s longest streak of consecutive bowl appearances is nine straight and came from 1987-1995. The longest streak of bowl wins is three in a row, 1991, 1992, and 1993 with one Sugar Bowl and two Cotton Bowl victories.
In 2022, Marcus Freeman recovered from a slow start in his first season leading the Fighting Irish to lead the team to a 45-38 win over South Carolina in the Gator Bowl. Now, let’s dig into every bowl game appearance in the illustrious history of Notre Dame.
Rose Bowl (1-1)
1925: Notre Dame 27 Stanford 10
Notre Dame secured its first national championship with a 27-10 Rose Bowl victory over fellow unbeaten Stanford. The Fighting Irish finished the year a perfect 10-0 behind the “four horsemen” backfield of quarterback Harry Stuhldreher, halfback Don Miller, halfback Jim Crowley, and fullback Elmer Layden.
This game featured the two best teams in the country, but also the two best coaches as Knute Rockne led Notre Dame past Pop Warner and Stanford. Stanford turned the ball over eight times and Notre Dame capitalized on three of those takeaways returning a fumble and two interceptions for touchdowns.
2021: Alabama 31 Notre Dame 14
Notre Dame and Alabama faced off in the second-ever Rose Bowl to be played outside of Pasadena and Mac Jones led Alabama to the CFP national championship game.
Cotton Bowl (5-3)
1970: Texas 21 Notre Dame 17
1971: Notre Dame 24 Texas 11
1978: Notre Dame 38 Texas 10
There was chaos at the top of college football in 1977, and heading into the Cotton Bowl, Notre Dame was ranked No. 5 against No. 1, undefeated Texas. Joe Montana and the Fighting Irish knocked off the Longhorns, so five teams finished with a one-loss record, and Notre Dame was named the national champion, jumping from five to one.
No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 4 Michigan lost the Orange Bowl and the Rose Bowl respectively, and despite No. 3 Alabama’s 35-6 win over No. 9 Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl, Notre Dame leapfrogged the Crimson Tide for the title.
1979: Notre Dame 35 Houston 34
Joe Montana and the Fighting Irish returned to the Cotton Bowl the very next season after winning a National Championship and this time faced 9-2 Houston. It was an unusually cold day in Dallas after an ice storm and Notre Dame went into the half trailing 20-12.
Joe Montana, who was dealing with the flu, had to remain in the locker room at the start of the third quarter because he was now battling hypothermia. The Notre Dame medical staff covered Montona in blankets and fed him a bowl of chicken soup. Eventually, Montana returned and threw two interceptions on his first two drives back, and then facing a fourth-quarter deficit of 34-12 led the Fighting Irish all the way back, scoring 23 unanswered points.
Montana needed every second to be the hero, throwing a touchdown pass to Kris Haines as time expired. Notre Dame finished the season 9-3 and ranked 7th in the AP Poll.
1988: Texas A&M 35 Notre Dame 10
1993: Notre Dame 28 Texas A&M 3
1994: Notre Dame 24 Texas A&M 21
The Fighting Irish faced the Aggies in the Cotton Bowl for the second straight season and entered the game at 10-1 with a potential shot at the national championship on the line. Notre Dame won a close one but finished the year ranked second in the country at 11-1.
2018: Clemson 30 Notre Dame 3
Orange Bowl (2-3)
1973: Nebraska 40 Notre Dame 6
1975: Notre Dame 13 Alabama 11
In Ara Parseghian’s final game as head coach of the Fighting Irish, Notre Dame defeated Alabama to finish the season 10-2 and No. 6 in the country. It was a valiant title defense following the 1973 national title, but a year that featured losses to Purdue and USC.
Notre Dame did all of its scoring in the first half of this game and held off an Alabama comeback attempt. Reggie Barnett intercepted Alabama quarterback Richard Todd to seal the victory.
1990: Notre Dame 21 Colorado 6
The Fighting Irish has one loss on the year coming into the Orange Bowl against undefeated No. 1 Colorado. After a scoreless first half, Notre Dame scored two rushing touchdowns in the third quarter, courtesy of Anthony Johnson and Raghib Ismail.
Despite knocking off the top team in the country, Notre Dame only finished second in the AP Poll behind the Miami Hurricanes who were named national champions after beating Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl.
1991: Colorado 10 Notre Dame 9
1996: Florida State 31 Notre Dame 26
Sugar Bowl (2-2)
1973: Notre Dame 24 Alabama 23
Bear Bryant’s undefeated Alabama Crimson Tide traveled to New Orleans for this New Year’s Eve matchup with an 11-0 record and a No. 1 ranking next to their name. Notre Dame was third in the country at 10-0 and an underdog facing the SEC champions in the south.
Notre Dame took a 21-17 lead into the fourth quarter with two rushing touchdowns and a 93-yard kickoff return touchdown by Al Hunter in the second quarter. Then with 9:33 remaining in the fourth Alabama quarterback, Richard Todd threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Mike Stock to take the lead, but kicker Bill Davis missed the extra point attempt.
The missed kick left the door open for Notre Dame to win the game with a kick of its own and with 4:26 left Bob Thomas nailed a 19-yard field goal to take a 24-23 lead that the Fighting Irish would never relinquish. With the win, they were awarded the 1973 national championship.
1981: Georgia 17 Notre Dame 10
1992: Notre Dame 39 Florida 28
2007: LSU 41 Notre Dame 14
Gator Bowl (2-2)
1976: Notre Dame 20 Penn State 9
1999: Georgia Tech 35 Notre Dame 28
2003: North Carolina State 28 Notre Dame 6
2022: Notre Dame 45 South Carolina 38
With Brian Kelly’s departure from LSU in the offseason, Marcus Freeman took over the program as head coach. He began the 2022 campaign with back-to-back losses, first 21-10 to Ohio State, then 26-21 to Marshall. After those losses, Freeman was able to rally his team to a 9-4 record that included wins over three ranked opponents.
After knocking off South Carolina and Spencer Rattler in the Gator Bowl to end the season, the Fighting Irish were ranked 18th in the final AP Poll and 21st in the last CFP rankings.
Fiesta Bowl (1-5)
1989: Notre Dame 34 West Virginia 21
There was no official national championship game in place in the 1980s, but the 1989 Fiesta Bowl was the unofficial title game because it featured two unbeaten teams, No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 3 West Virginia.
The winner would almost certainly be awarded the title, but a lot of the excitement surrounding the game went away on the third play when West Virginia’s Heisman candidate quarterback, Major White separated his shoulder. Harris would return but was limited and Lou Holtz’s Fighting Irish marched on to a national title with a convincing win.
Notre Dame led by as much as 26-6 in the third quarter and 34-13 in the fourth before West Virginia scored late to make the game look more competitive than it was.
1995: Colorado 41 Notre Dame 24
2001: Oregon State 41 Notre Dame 9
2006: Ohio State 34 Notre Dame 20
2016: Ohio State 44 Notre Dame 28
2022: Oklahoma State 37 Notre Dame 35
Marcus Freeman’s first game as head coach of the Fighting Irish was a close loss to the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
BCS Championship
2013: Alabama 42 Notre Dame 14
The Fighting Irish came into the game undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the country, but were underdogs and were dominated by Alabama. The Fighting Irish ultimately were forced to vacate all 12 wins from this season in 2018 due to NCAA violations.
1980s Miscellaneous
Liberty Bowl
1983: Notre Dame 19 Boston College 18
With the win, the Fighting Irish finished the season 7-5 after entering the year ranked No. 5 in the country. This was Gerry Faust’s third season as head coach of Notre Dame and his first bowl game appearance. He was replaced by Lou Holtz in 1986 after failing to win more than seven games in any of his five seasons.
Aloha Bowl
1984: SMU 27 Notre Dame 20
1990s Miscellaneous
Independence Bowl
1997: LSU 27 Notre Dame 9
Bob Davie led the Fighting Irish to 7-6 and a bowl game in his first season after Lou Holtz ended his career with an 8-3 record the season before. The Fighting Irish did not go to a bowl game in 1996. Davie would go 0-3 in three bowl games in across his five-year tenure.
2000s Miscellaneous
Insight Bowl
2004: Oregon State 38 Notre Dame 21
Hawaii Bowl
2008: Notre Dame 49 Hawaii 21
The Fighting Irish finally snapped a streak of nine straight bowl losses. Notre Dame’s last bowl win was the 1994 Cotton Bowl.
2010s Miscellaneous
Sun Bowl
2010: Notre Dame 33 Miami 17
Champs Sports Bowl
2011: Florida State 18 Notre Dame 14
Pinstripe Bowl
2013: Notre Dame 29 Rutgers16
Music City Bowl
2014: Notre Dame 31 LSU 28
Entering the fourth quarter, Notre Dame and LSU were tied at 28 and the game stayed that way until the final seconds when Kyle Brindza hit a walk-off, game-winning field goal for the Irish. Notre Dame finished 8-5 two years removed from its BCS national championship loss.
Citrus Bowl
2018: Notre Dame 21 LSU 17
Again, the Irish knocked off LSU, Brian Kelly’s future home, in a bowl game. This time, the fourth quarter featured nearly all of the scoring as Notre Dame trailed 14-6 in the fourth after a Derrius Guice touchdown run. Then Ian Book led the Irish all the way back with two touchdown passes and a two-point conversion to win the game.
Camping World Bowl
2019: Notre Dame 33 Iowa State 9
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