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Notre Dame & The Postseason

The University of Notre Dame will participate in a postseason bowl outing for the 38th time in its history when the invitations are extended today (Sunday) on The 2019 College Football Playoff Selection Show starting at noon ET on ESPN.

The College Football Playoff teams will be revealed at 12:15 p.m., the New Year's Six matchups at 3 p.m., and the rest of the bowl schedule shortly thereafter. Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly will have his comments and update in a teleconference that is scheduled sometime between 4 to 6 p.m.

Notre Dame became the 10th different team last year to receive a bid to the College Football Playoff since its 2014 inception.
Notre Dame became the 10th different team last year to receive a bid to the College Football Playoff since its 2014 inception. (Matthew Emmons, USA Today)
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For the past couple of weeks, the overwhelming projection for Notre Dame has been the Dec. 28 Camping World Bowl in Orlando, Fla., versus a Big 12 team, with Iowa State, Oklahoma State and Texas among the potential foes. An outside shot at the Jan. 1 Citrus (in the same stadium) also has not been out of the question.

Notre Dame is 18-19 all time in bowl games, losing last year 30-3 to eventual national champ Clemson in a College Football Playoff semifinal that was held in the Cotton Bowl.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Notre Dame rescinding its non-bowl policy in the 44 straight years from 1925-68 in which it did not go to a postseason game.

The bowl ban was voluntary because national titles were voted on by the Associated Press and coaches at the end of the regular season (1965 was an exception among the coaches), i.e. the 1966 national championship for the Fighting Irish with a 9-0-1 record without needing to go to a bowl.

However, in 1968 the Associated Press decided that it would wait until after the bowl games to make its selection on who is No. 1. Not so coincidentally, Notre Dame then made itself eligible for bowls in 1969.

There have been many other opportunities to attend a bowl , but following the regular seasons in 1971 (8-2), 1975 (8-3), 1979 (7-4), 1982 (6-4-1), 1996 (8-3) and 2009 (6-6), either the players voted to turn down a bid (1971 and 1975), or the university decided overall it was not in their best interests.

In 1969, there were two unofficial mandates by Notre Dame on going to a bowl: First, it had to be a “major” — which meant the Cotton, Orange and Sugar among the dozen bowls then, given that the Rose was tied in with the Big 10 and Pac-8 champion. Second, the preference is it would be versus a higher-ranked team, or versus someone where a victory would help improve its standing if Notre Dame wasn’t No 1 itself.

For example, in the first year of returning to a bowl, 8-1-1 and No. 9-ranked Notre Dame was matched with No. 1 Texas in the Cotton Bowl. The Longhorns rallied late for a 21-17 victory — yet at 8-2-1 the Fighting Irish were elevated from No. 9 to No. 5 in the final AP poll.

This year, the aspiration for the 10-2 Fighting Irish, ranked No. 15 by the College Football Playoff committee and No. 14 by the Associated Press, is to crack the final Top 10 for the fourth time since 1994. The others were 2005 (No. 9), 2012 (No. 4) and 2018 (No. 5) — which then this year with a win could be the first time to accomplish it in back-to-back years since 1992-93.

The 10-3 teams in 2015 and 2017 both placed No. 11.

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BOWL GAME FACTS & FIGURES

Beginning with the 1925 Rose Bowl, a 27-10 win versus Stanford that won Notre Dame the national title, the Irish are 18-19 all time in the postseason events. Here are some other notable facts and figures:

• During the extraordinary 25-year period from 1970-93, Notre Dame won the most majors — Fiesta was added to the category in the 1980s — with 10.

• In that same 25-year stretch, the Fighting Irish played 10 bowl games against a team that was either ranked No. 1, undefeated or both, and recorded a remarkable 7-3 record against them.

• At the end of the 1993 season, Notre Dame’s 13-6 bowl record was the best winning percentage (.684) among all schools that played in at least 15 bowl games.

• From 1994-2006, Notre Dame lost nine consecutive bowl games — an NCAA record that dropped its all-time postseason ledger to 13-15. The streak ended when the 6-6 Irish defeated Hawai’i 49-21 on Christmas Eve 2008 in the Hawai’i Bowl.

• After the 13-6 stretch in the 25 years from 1969-93 (with 10 wins in majors), the next 25 years it is 5-13 (no majors) — meaning a win this year would give it the mirror opposite total the next 25 years for a 19-19 overall ledger.

• The longest bowl winning streak for Notre Dame was five straight from 1973-78 (it voted not to go to a bowl in 1975 with an 8-3 record). It has not won more than three in a row since 1991-93, and has not had a streak longer than two games since then: 2013 Pinstripe Bowl versus Rutgers and 2014 Music City Bowl against LSU.

• Notre Dame’s best bowl has been the Cotton, where it is 5-3. It has not won more than two games in any other bowl.

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