Unless you’re near 100 years old you’ve never seen Notre Dame play in “The Grand Daddy of them all” as the legendary Keith Jackson described the Rose Bowl game.
Notre Dame has only appeared in the Rose Bowl game once, back in 1925 when their win over Stanford secured a national championship for Knute Rockne and company.
After Saturday’s upset victory over previously No. 1 Clemson the possibility of Notre Dame heading to Pasadena gained substantial steam according to ESPN’s latest bowl projections.
Kyle Bonagura projects Notre Dame to head to the College Football Playoff and draw Ohio State in the Rose Bowl while Mark Schlabach calls for the Irish to take on Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.
ESPN also releases a weekly College Football Playoff projection with 14 different contributors making their predictions. This week all 14 had Notre Dame in the playoff with 13 of those having the Irish take on Ohio State in Pasadena.
Of all years for Notre Dame to play in the Rose Bowl go figure on it potentially being the year of a pandemic and extremely limited crowds.
That said I don’t think any Notre Dame fans would be upset if that’s where the Irish end up this winter.