Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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6 APRIL 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED COUNTING CROWNS After the Notre Dame-Ohio State game, I have been reading about this being the ninth national championship for Ohio State, and also the fact that Woody Hayes has five of them. These teams like Ohio State, Ala- bama, et al, claim bogus championships while Notre Dame won't claim some that they could — namely 1919 and 1964. My records show that this was Ohio State's seventh consensus title (1942, 1954, 1957, 1968, 2002, 2014 and 2024). Also in 1954 and 1957 they were co-champions with each wire service AP and UPI picking differ- ent teams. As I see it, Hayes has three titles and two of those he was co-champ. I would deeply appreciate it if you could clear this up for me. Bill Stavishak Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Mr. Stavishak, according to the official NCAA record book, Notre Dame is credited with 13 national championships and Ohio State is credited with nine, including five during Hayes' 28-year tenure from 1951-78. The Irish claim 11 consensus national ti- tles (1924, 1929, 1930, 1943, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1966, 1973, 1977 and 1988). The NCAA also recognizes Notre Dame titles in 1919 (Billing- sley Report, Parke Davis) and 1964 (National Football Foundation). In addition to the titles you noted , the Buckeyes were awarded a share of the na- tional championship in 1961 (Football Writ- ers Association of America) and 1970 (Na- tional Football Foundation). The 1961 squad went 8-0-1 and was invited to the Rose Bowl, but the university faculty council voted to re- ject the invitation. OSU was ranked No. 2 be- hind Alabama in both polls at the end of the regular season, but got a championship nod from the FWAA. In 1970, the Buckeyes lost to Stanford in the Rose Bowl to finish 9-1 and behind Nebraska (AP) and Texas (coaches) in the polls before being recognized by the NFF. Here are the top five Football Bowl Subdi- vision schools in football national titles, per NCAA.com: Rk. School National Titles 1. Alabama 16 2. Notre Dame 13 3. Michigan 10 4. Ohio State 9 USC 9 FAN FORUM BE HEARD! Send your letters to: sdowney@comanpub.com or mail to: Blue & Gold Illustrated, P. O. Box 2331, Durham, NC 27702 The Notre Dame's women's basketball program earned its first No. 1 national ranking since 2019 in February this season, though its stay in the top spot was short-lived. The Irish dropped out after a week at No. 1 due to a 104-95 double-overtime defeat at then-No. 13 North Carolina State Feb. 23 that snapped their 19-game win streak and handed them their first loss in ACC play this season. Nevertheless, Irish fans were still bullish on Notre Dame's chances to make some noise during March Madness. Here is an excerpt from a thread on our message board at BlueandGold.com. FWCOAXH: I believe with all my heart, soul and eyes that this is the best team in the nation. I go back to the Stanford game a couple weeks ago. ND played stretches of awful basketball and at one point led Stanford by 52 points. That's not normal. This team is insanely talented and well-coached. Their biggest issue is boredom. KevinPS: Six games against top-10 opponents with a 4-2 record. Not too bad. Hit three-pointers at a slightly more realistic clip and we win in regulation yesterday. twalsh: Or if one of the worst FT shooting teams in the country doesn't make 20 in a row. Just wasn't in the cards yesterday. Barbaro2232: There's too much parity going at least seven deep at the top. Sometimes it's just the team with the hot hand at the right time that will win it all. More than anything else, you have to be consistent in those games, with no dips in performance. This ND team has the talent to do that. It also needs the focus. Yesterday's defense would not likely get them out of the Elite Eight unless they were shooting much, much better. Mr.Leonard: I kind of agree with this. I do think they get a little bored, although they often wake up after a while and pull away pretty easily. The problem yesterday was NC State is good and played lights out. We tried to just rely on our overall talent without doing the tough thing — play- ing defense. So when we shot it poorly we couldn't get over the hump. And as all have said, we still were within a tenth of a second from winning. I think the loss was good for us. Sometimes you take winning for granted. Not difficult when you have this kind of talent. I will be surprised if we don't get refocused very quickly. And we will need to. We might actually be the best team in the nation, but there are 7 or 8 others who are right there with us. One bad shooting night and lackadaisical effort on defense will send us home once we get to the Elite 8 or beyond. I expect Ivey will have them locked in from here on out. mmwalsh: Kind of enjoy watching them play. Especially Hannah's motor. Boredom is a legit issue. Yesterday hopefully was their NIU game. Fire now just got turned up. Every night they will get 20 from Hannah. Olivia will give you 15-20. Citron 15-20. King 12-16 and 10 boards. The question is if one of these great ballers have an off night where is 30 going to come from? Can the combination of the other 4 give you 30 + and own the glass? If the other 4 in combination turn it up, it could be something coming up. Need 'em all to click. FROM THE WEB .com .com JOIN THE CONVERSATION AT BLUEANDGOLD.COM! Sign up for just $1 for the first 7 days! The Notre Dame women's basketball team ascended to No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 Feb. 17 — the first time the Irish had reached those heights since Jan. 21, 2019. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER