My colleague and man I am happy to call a friend Pete Fiutak at College Football News calls what Notre Dame football has with the ACC: “A friends with benefits deal”. Look, Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake won’t be making a movie about it anytime soon, but it’s impossible to argue against Pete’s point. Notre Dame keeps their independence while having to play a handful of ACC opponents annually for the foreseeable future. Benefits indeed!
Listen, I’d rather have traditional rivals Michigan, Michigan State, Pitt, and Purdue on the schedule regularly. Instead we’re treated to regular meetings with Duke, Louisville, Wake Forest, and the sort. It might not thrill the casual fan but it’s still a lot better than joining a conference full-time.
With the destruction of Clemson just over a week ago and Boston College headed to South Bend this weekend I thought it’d be a good time to take a look at Notre Dame and the ACC. Notre Dame sits at 7-3 entering Saturday’s date with the Eagles with a 3-0 mark against ACC foes this year.
No. 13 North Carolina, Syracuse, and No. 9 Clemson all have suffered losses at the hands of the Irish this year. We know nothing is a guarantee with Notre Dame at home this year (see Marshall and Stanford) but the Irish enter this weekend as a three-score favorite. Win that game and they’ll again sweep the regular season series with the ACC, something they’ve done every year since 2018.
So I was curious – how many regular season wins against ACC teams does Notre Dame have since 2018? And how does that compare to the rest of the league?
Here is the amount of regular season wins against ACC opponents each ACC team and Notre Dame have accumulated since the start of 2018, starting with the fewest.
Data as of November 15, 2022