The Michigan–Notre Dame football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Michigan Wolverines and Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
The Michigan and Notre Dame football programs are among the most distinguished in college football. Both Michigan and Notre Dame are among the all-time leaders in team wins (Michigan 993; Notre Dame 938). Both schools claim 11 national championships, and have more recognized by all NCAA selectors (Notre Dame 22; Michigan 16) Both schools are top producers of consensus All-Americans (Notre Dame 107; Michigan 87), and top producers of NFL Draft selections (Notre Dame 522, Michigan 392).
Michigan is a member of the Big Ten Conference while Notre Dame football is independent. In 2013, Notre Dame joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in all sports except football and hockey, though the football team has played five ACC opponents each season since 2014. For the year 2020, Notre Dame did join the ACC Conference in football, but lost the title to conference champion Clemson. Notre Dame and Michigan initially reached a mutual agreement to suspend the series for the 2018 and 2019 football season. Notre Dame then decided to cancel the 2015 through 2017 games, citing the need to play ACC games. After a three-year hiatus, the series resumed in 2018 and 2019. The teams are scheduled to meet again in 2033 and 2034.
Summary
Notre Dame and Michigan first played on November 23, 1887, in Notre Dame's first football game in South Bend, Indiana. The Wolverines proceeded to win the first eight contests, before Notre Dame notched its first win in the series in 1909. In 1942, in the first meeting since 1909, Michigan beat then #4 Notre Dame in Notre Dame Stadium. The next season, on October 9, top-ranked Notre Dame defeated second-ranked Michigan in the first matchup of top teams since the creation of the AP Poll in 1936. The teams ceased to play each other until the series was renewed in 1978. It has since been played annually with the exception of hiatuses in 1983–84, 1995–96, and 2000–01. After the 2014 meeting, the series went on hiatus. However, the series was renewed in 2018 and 2019.
Michigan leads the all-time series 25–17*–1. The NCAA has vacated Notre Dame one win due to NCAA sanctions.
Origins and early years
1887: Michigan teaches the game to Notre Dame
The first game took place on November 23, 1887. Michigan had been playing football since May 30, 1879. Two players on Michigan's 1887 team, George Winthrop DeHaven, Jr. and William Warren Harless, had previously attended Notre Dame. In October 1887, DeHaven wrote to Brother Paul, who ran Notre Dame's intramural athletics program, telling him about the new game of football. Michigan had planned a game in Chicago on Thanksgiving Day, and the three men, DeHaven, Harless and Brother Paul, persuaded their respective schools to play a football match on the Notre Dame campus on the day before Thanksgiving.
On November 22, 1887, the Michigan football team departed from the Michigan Central Railroad Depot in Ann Arbor on the late train. After breakfast in Niles, Michigan, the team changed trains and arrived in South Bend between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. The team was greeted by Father Superior Walsh and spent two hours touring the university buildings and departments of Notre Dame.
The game was the first played by a Notre Dame football team, and the Michigan team was credited with teaching the Notre Dame team the game before play began. The Notre Dame student newspaper, Scholastic, reported: "It was not considered a match contest, as the home team had been organized only a few weeks, and the Michigan boys, the champions of the West, came more to instruct them in the points of the Rugby game than to win fresh laurels." The proceedings began with a tutorial session in which players from both teams were divided irrespective of college. For the first 30 minutes, the teams scrimmaged in a practice game with Michigan "exchanging six men for the same number from Notre Dame."
After the practice session, the Michigan and Notre Dame teams played a game that lasted only half an hour which was described by The Chronicle (a University of Michigan newspaper) as follows: "The grounds were in very poor condition for playing, being covered with snow in a melting condition, and the players could scarcely keep their feet. Some time had been spent in preliminary practice; the game began and after rolling and tumbling in the mud for half an hour time was finally called, the score standing 8 to 0 in favor of U. of M."