The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Penn State Nittany Lions will meet in the Orange Bowl on Thursday for the right to play in the National Championship game of the College Football Playoff. The facts in that sentence alone are enough to make the game an absolute monster game — but there’s so much to this, and fans under the age of 40 are probably unaware why.
Here, for example, is the full Wikipedia entry for the series that a 27 year old who is curious about the historical significance of this game:
Notre Dame and Penn State first met in 1913. After subsequent games in 1925, 1926 and 1928, the two schools would not meet again until the 1976 Gator Bowl, by which time an annual home-and-home series beginning in 1981 had been agreed upon. The Fighting Irish held a 4–0–1 edge going into 1981, but Penn State won 6 of the next 7.
The coaches were one source of the rivalry. Lou Holtz and Joe Paterno were both long serving and successful coaches at their respective schools. Their friendly rivalry helped expand the Notre Dame–Penn State rivalry to new dimensions.
The series ended after the 1992 season, coinciding with formerly independent Penn State’s affiliation with the Big Ten. It had been scheduled to continue through 1994 and Notre Dame approached Penn State about extending it even further, but Penn State’s admittance to the Big Ten in 1990 made it more difficult to fit the games on the schedule.
However, the Fighting Irish and Nittany Lions recent successes and other factors led to the renewal of the rivalry in 2006–07, in which the teams split both games. The series is tied 9–9–1.
The series will be renewed on January 9, 2025, as apart of the 2024–25 College Football Playoff, where the two will meet in the semifinal game, with the winner advancing to the national championship game.
What that very basic entry failed to disclose is just how much animosity there is between the two schools and its fanbases. The hate is real, and will almost always exist even if they never play a game again.
The real core to this series is the 12 game stretch between 1981 and 1992. For Notre Dame fans, however, it was fairly one-sided. The Irish were just 4-8 during that span, which evened the record to 8-8-1 for both teams. The series helped define what blue-collar football looked like — and I think that’s where the hatred really is given a jolt.
We had these two austere and blue-blooded programs both fighting for the same type of national recognition and national glory. That creates more competitive fire, and a type of jealous one-upmanship. In a lot of ways, it was a lot like Notre Dame vs Michigan — and we all know how we feel about that. The Irish and Nittany Lions were also hitting the same recruiting trails — and competing for “fan territory” given the proximity to the Midwest and east coast.
There doesn’t need to be any more than that, but the hatred grew past those 12 years for other various reasons.
Penn State left independence behind (like a weakling) for the Big 10, and every opportunity Joe Paterno had to take a shot at the Irish for NOT joining the Big 10 — he took. The funny thing is the series was supposed to go into the 1993 and 1994 seasons, but with Penn State backing out — the Irish were able to schedule the Florida State Seminoles (who were still independent at the time). The short FSU series gave us some of the most iconic moments of the 1990s — moments that could have been on the national radar for the Nittany Lions (but decidedly weren’t).
Penn State’s newfound blood loyalty to the Big Ten was disgusting and added to the visceral discourse between the two fanbases. When the two school’s finally played one another again in a 2 game series in 2006 and 2007, they really changed little of that discourse. Notre Dame and Penn State basically traded 3 touchdown home wins to put the series at 9-9-1… and here we are a decade and a half later — and nothing has changed (except maybe Ty Hildenbrandt living in the middle of this space).
Hate is a part of college football and it’s a good thing. Notre Dame and Penn State have a healthy amount of it after over 100 years of college football and only 19 meetings. What will the 20th meeting bring us?
There are plenty of reasons for the hate. What are yours?
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