The Latest Notre Dame Fighting Irish Bowl Projections
In our bowl projections article from last week, eight of nine college football websites predicted the Fighting Irish would play in the Camping World Bowl Dec. 28 in Orlando, Fla.
Only one had Notre Dame with the chance to win its first major bowl game in 26 years, the 24-21 victory versus 10-1 and No. 7 Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1994.
Sporting News was the outlet that saw Notre Dame facing Memphis in the Cotton Bowl Dec. 28, but they are changing tune. They too now have the Irish facing Kansas State (7-4, 4-4 Big 12) in the Camping World Bowl.
If the bowl projections end up accurate, then the Irish will be headed to the Sunshine State, which has been their most-traveled postseason destination. Notre Dame owns an 18-19 all-time record in bowl games, although only 5-13 since 1994, with no victories in any majors during that time. It had 10 such conquests from 1970-93, the most in the country overt that period, with seven of them coming against unbeaten and/or top-ranked teams.
Of those 37 bowl games, 11 have been played in Florida:
• 2-3 in the Orange Bowl at Miami.
• 1-2 in the Gator Bowl at Jacksonville.
• 0-1 in the Champs Sports Bowl — which is now known as the aforementioned Camping World Bowl — at Orlando. That defeat came in 2011 to Florida State (18-14) after the Irish had built a 14-0 lead.
• 0-1 in the 2013 BCS Championship held at the then Sun Life Stadium in Miami, a 42-14 verdict by No. 2 Alabama over No. 1 Notre Dame.
• 1-0 in the Citrus Bowl, also held in Orlando, with current senior quarterback Ian Book connecting with Miles Boykin on a dramatic game-winning touchdown pass with 1:28 remaining to defeat LSU 21-17 on Jan. 1, 2018.
At this point, it’s unanimous among college football writers that Notre Dame will be playing in the Camping World Bowl, but the team they will be facing varies from website to website.
Both Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach from ESPN, as well as Bleacher Report’s Joe Tansey, have the Irish in Orlando versus Oklahoma State (8-3, 5-3).
CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm projects Notre Dame to face Texas (6-5, 4-4).
Brett McMurphy of Watch Stadium and Steven Lassasn of Athlon Sports both have the Irish going against Iowa State (7-4, 5-3).
----
• Talk about it inside Rockne’s Roundtable
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @BGI_MikeSinger, @CoachDeDario and @AndrewMentock.
• Like us on Facebook.