Breaking down the history between Notre Dame and Indiana before playoff matchup

Typically, rivalries form in one of two ways: either it's one school in a state against another school in that same state (think Alabama-Auburn, or Michigan-Michigan State), or a school hates the school from a neighboring state (think Michigan-Ohio State, or Florida-Georgia). But, there are a few times where schools from the same state aren't really rivals.

And we get to see one of them in the College Football Playoff this year, when Notre Dame takes on Indiana.

Why aren't they rivals? Let's break it down.

Tale of the Tape: Notre Dame and Indiana have played each other just 29 times in the history of these two programs. That may seem like a lot, but consider this: Indiana has played Purdue, it's true in-state rival, 126 times, while Notre Dame has played Navy 95 times, and USC 92 times. The Irish have even played Purdue more than they've played the Hoosiers; the Irish and Boilermakers have squared off 86 times over the years.

Notre Dame also has a chokehold on this matchup; they've won 23 of the 29 matchups, and haven't lost to the Hoosiers since 1950.

Of course, part of the reason they haven't lost much is because they really haven't played much since. Notre Dame has played Indiana just once in the last 65 years, in 1991, when they beat the Hoosiers 49-27.

What's the Story? You've heard of the "big brother, little brother" rivalry in sports; it's when one school is larger and more successful than the other school in the matchup, which just makes the losing school hate the victors even more. Think Michigan State-Michigan, or Iowa and Iowa State (sorry Cyclones fans; you have to win that matchup more than once a decade to lose the little brother tag).

This matchup isn't that. This is more like that time when you were 10 and you convinced your six-year-old brother he was invisible and unhearable for a full day until mom came home and found him crying in the backyard because he thought he was a ghost.

For most of their football history, Notre Dame has simply pretended Indiana didn't exist. And why should they? The Irish are the bluest of college football blue bloods, a historic superpower who had unprecedented national reach and a massive, nationwide base of wildly devoted fans.

The Hoosiers were the most woebegone football program in the country, a perennial Big Ten doormat who had never won more than nine games in a season prior to this year, and had six seasons in 126 in which they finished the year ranked in the Top 25. The Irish had better things to do than play the charity case from the southern half of the state.

Notable Matchups: Honestly, there aren't many. Indiana's lone win since World War II in this matchup came in 1950, and neither team was all that good. The Hoosiers won 20-7, but went on to go just 3-5-1 on the year, while the Irish went from being the preseason number one team in the country to unranked and 4-4-1. Outside of that, Indiana's four series wins here all came before 1910.

This is the first time these two teams will meet in a year where both of them are good, and I'd bet that Indiana fans are ready to rub the Irish's face in it if they come out on top here.

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By Sam Westmoreland | 3:36 PM EST