The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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36 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2018 FOOTBALL PREVIEW By The Numbers 2 In 2016, Athlon Sports named Michigan as Notre Dame's second biggest all-time rival, be- hind just USC. In 2013, it called the Michigan- Notre Dame rivalry the 23rd best in college football. 6 According to The Wall Street Journal, Michi- gan's football program is the sixth most valu- able in the nation at $892,951,000. Notre Dame's football program ranked seventh, with a value of $856,938,000. 13 Football Bowl Subdivision programs have a winning record against Notre Dame. Michigan is one, and has the highest win deferential of any team (seven). U-M is 24-17-1 against the Irish. 13 National titles have been won by Notre Dame, which is good for second all time, topping No. 3 Michigan by two champi- onships. Season Openers Michigan has played Notre Dame in its season opener nine times. The first of these meetings came in 1985, while the most recent opening matchup was played in 1999. These games haven't been kind to the Wolverines, who have a 3-5-1 record in them. The good news for Michigan is that U-M has never finished un- ranked in the final AP Poll or with fewer than eight wins when opening the season against Notre Dame. When Michigan wins, it sets the team up well — it averages 10.33 wins per season when defeating the Fighting Irish in the first game. Most of the times Michigan and Notre Dame get together it is in the second or third week of the season. Since 2002, seven of the 13 games have come in week two, and five have come in week three. However, because the two schools scheduled the home-and-home series in 2016, so close to this season, the programs had to get creative. That left the first week in 2018 and a late October game at Michigan Stadium in 2019 — which will be U-M's eighth game of the season. At Notre Dame Stadium, which opened in 1930, Michigan has a 6-10-1 record. A Look At The Michigan Fans were at Michigan Stadium for the 2013 meeting between U-M and ND. It's the largest crowd for a college football game in a campus facility in NCAA history (the only game with more came at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2016). The regular-season game with the third-highest overall attendance in history also came in Ann Arbor for this rivalry — 114,804 in 2011. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL 18 The average TV rank- ing of the Michigan- Notre Dame game from 2012-2014 among all televised regular-season contests. The 2012 game recorded a 4.0 rating, 2013 received a 5.3 and 2014 dipped to 2.7. Those three games totaled 4.63 million, 8.65 million and 6.4 million viewers, respectively, averag- ing out to 6.56 million viewers per game. The 2012 game was the 11th most watched game of the regular season, while 2013 came in at No. 5 and 2012 fell to No. 38. 22 Times Michigan and Notre Dame have played when both teams were ranked in the Associated Press Top 25, which will likely be the case again this season. In these meetings, Michigan is 8-13-1. The school ranked higher is 9-12-1 in such games, while the Wolverines are just 4-8 as that team. U-M and ND have met twice as the top two teams in the country, in 1943 and 1989, but the Fighting Irish won both times. 495 NFL Draft picks Notre Dame has produced, slotting the school second all time behind only USC (502). Michigan is fifth with 362. Michigan Vs. Notre Dame In U-M's Season Opener Year Result Final Record (AP rank) 1985 W, 20-12 10-1-1 (No. 2) 1986 W, 24-23 11-2 (No. 8) 1987 L, 26-7 8-4 (No. 19) 1988 L, 19-17 9-2-1 (No. 4) 1989 L, 24-19 10-2 (No. 7) 1990 L, 28-24 9-3 (No. 7) 1992 T, 17-17 9-0-3 (No. 5) 1998 L, 36-20 10-3 (No. 12) 1999 W, 26-22 10-2 (No. 5) 115,109