The college football season is just starting, and the excitement is high for the potential matchups and changing emotions. One of the most anticipated matchups to start the season happened on Saturday, with the return of the rivalry between the Miami Hurricanes and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish after nearly eight years. The Hurricanes won in a convincing 27-24 win at Hard Rock Stadium to go along with multiple highlights from players like sophomore Rueben Bain Jr, senior transfer CJ Daniels, and true freshman Malachi Toney. Everyone knew about this game, but what was the history behind this rivalry?
The Notre Dame-Miami rivalry dates back to the late 1960s, and the matchups started with Miami growing into one of college football’s blue bloods at the time. At the same time, Notre Dame was already a force to be reckoned with, already having 10 national championships and dominating against the Hurricanes, but all that was about to be flipped on its head. Throughout multiple head-to-head games, Miami built its resume as a national power in college football, winning two national championships against the Nebraska Cornhuskers in 1983 to win the first in program history, and Oklahoma in 1987, beating Notre Dame in the regular season in both those seasons.
The peak of the rivalry was the infamous 1988 “Catholics vs Convicts” game, where Miami was ranked as the No. 1 football team in the country with a 4-0 record, and the Irish standing at the No. 4 spot with a 5-0 record. The name stems from Notre Dame students printing t-shirts and was mostly inspired by two Miami players being arrested before the season and their aggressive playstyle. At this time, the Hurricanes had a regular-season winning streak of 36 games to pair with a recent national championship. The Fighting Irish would upset the Hurricanes in a 31-30 nail-biter, where Miami’s two-point conversion to take the lead failed, which would set Notre Dame up for adding another national championship to their legacy.
This season opener was the Hurricanes and the Fighting Irish’s first matchup against each other since the 2017 -18 season, where the Canes defeated Notre Dame 41-8. This rivalry is sought after because both teams have helped shape each other’s legacies. In those matchups in the late 70s to 90s, whenever it was “the Catholics vs the Convicts”, the games had major postseason implications. And despite the rivalry fizzling out, this game was a good way for both teams to reignite it and add another chapter to their history against each other, with this one favoring the Hurricanes.
