Notre Dame’s best teams not to win a national championship

Notre Dame has had a few great teams that didn’t win a national championship. Inspired by a bad ESPN list here are seven of the best here.

Notre Dame’s Best Non-Title Teams – 1993 Fighting Irish

Remember last page when Notre Dame losing to Miami was too much to overcome for the Irish and their title hopes, even despite Miami falling by two touchdowns to a two-loss Florida State team?  Well, throw that logic out…

  • Started the season ranked seventh in the pre-season and fell to No. 11 after an unimpressive, 27-12 win over Northwestern in Week One.
  • Beat No. 3 Michigan 27-23 the following week and jumped from 11 to four in the national rankings.
  • Did not play a single ranked opponent in seven games between win over Michigan and “Game of the Century” versus Florida State
  • As No. 2, beat No. 1 Florida State 31-24 in mid-November
  • Fell to No. 17 Boston College 41-39 in final regular season game
  • Beat No. 7 Texas A&M 24-21 in the Cotton Bowl
  • Finished No. 2 behind Florida State, despite beating them head-to-head…something I will never get over.

So there, not just one great Notre Dame team that didn’t win a national championship but more than a handful of great squads that didn’t ultimately call themselves champions.