The Big Lead

Which 2025 College Football Playoff fan bases would a national title be most meaningful for?

By Sam Westmoreland

Nov 30, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman celebrates with players at the end of the game against the Southern California Trojans at United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Nov 30, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman celebrates with players at the end of the game against the Southern California Trojans at United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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1. NOTRE DAME

Waking the echoes at Notre Dame would send shockwaves through the sport this season.
Dec 20, 2024; Notre Dame, Indiana, USA; The University of Notre Dame Main Building is framed by snow covered trees before a College Football Playoff first round game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Indiana Hoosiers at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-Imagn Images / Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are a relic of times long since passed in college football. Once the dominant force in the sport, they represent fallen dynasty, the gap between modern and historic college football, and remain, along with Texas, Ohio State, and Alabama, the program that most other fans love to watch lose.

Their last national title came in 1988, and since then, they've been marked by mediocrity, poorly timed losses, and finding themselves utterly outclassed on the sport's biggest stages. The closest they've come to a title was in 2012, when they faced Alabama in the national title game and suffered a 41-14 evisceration at the hands of the Crimson Tide.

There is nothing Irish fans want more than to wake up the echoes of glories past, and silence the critics who say they can't win in the modern game. There's a desperation here to return to the glory days that's unmatched at any other program, one that outstrips the needs that exist in Austin, in Happy Valley, or in Eugene. Notre Dame still remembers what it's like to be a true college football powerhouse, because even moreso than those other programs, they have been one. And maybe, just maybe, a national title would signal to the modern college football world that the Irish haven't fallen as far as people would like to think.

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