Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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was 19.9 points. Notre Dame���s 15-16 overall bowl record is a negative in its illustrious 125-year history. Yet there is no program that matches its 25year run from 1969-93 in ���BCS settings.��� The Need To Bowl A main reason why Notre Dame didn���t participate in bowl games from 1925-68 was it had no bearing on the national title. Until 1968, the national champion was determined at the end of the regular season (with 1965 an exception when the Associated Press held a vote after the bowl season). Notre Dame head coach Frank Leahy���s Fighting Irish captured four national titles in the 1940s without needing to play in a bowl. In 1953, Maryland won the national title over No. 2 Notre Dame even though the Terrapins lost in the Orange Bowl to Oklahoma ��� a team the Fighting Irish had defeated in Norman in that year���s opener. It was of no consequence to Maryland because it was already declared the national champ at the end of the regular season. Likewise, 9-0-1 Notre Dame in 1966 was declared the national champion following the regular season and didn���t need to go to a bowl for validation. It was irrelevant that 11-0 Alabama won the Sugar Bowl, 34-7, against Nebraska. The system changed in 1968. That year, the AP decided it would vote after bowl games. The coaches��� poll, which was the UPI back then, didn���t follow suit until 1974. Two other factors changed the bowl landscape for Notre Dame. One was the alteration in the school���s academic calendar. It used to be at Notre Dame that the first semester didn���t end until late January. That meant that the students had to use Christmas and New Year���s break to study for finals or do research papers. In 1969, the first semester ended Dec. 16 and Christmas break lasted until Jan. 5, thus making the bowl logistics easier. Second, the appeal of receiving $340,000 for participating in a major bowl heightened the lure. Either way, Notre Dame had to adjust to the times that made bowls more significant. The school still set four main parameters: 1. There were four major bowls, with the Rose having tieins to the Big Ten and then Pac-8 champs. Thus, the Irish preferred to participate in only one of the three other majors: Cotton, Orange or Sugar (the Fiesta wasn���t created until 1971, and didn���t become ���major��� until 1981). 2. The purpose of the bowl was to play either for the national title or enhance their national standing. 3. Money from the bowl would be used to fund minority scholarships at Notre Dame. 4. The football players would have the right to vote on whether or not they wanted to play in a bowl. Eventually, all these guidelines changed. Playing The Best No school in history had a more successful