When I recently clicked on an article at 247Sports titled “Miami, USC lead college football’s 10 most-hated teams of all time rankings” I wasn’t expecting to see the team that made me go from liking college football to being obsessed with it.
Had it been a list of the most disrespected teams of all-time I’d have expected to see 1993. That version of the Fighting Irish showed up on the list at eighth overal. Here is what Crawford had to say about that ’93 Notre Dame squad had a national championship blatantly stolen from them.
What is it about Notre Dame that makes the rest of college football fandom rolls their eyes when the Fighting Irish are mentioned among the elites? Go back to 1993 after a late-season loss to Boston College squandered a perfect season and national title for the program. The Fighting Irish were angered after finishing No. 2 behind Bobby Bowden’s Florida State Seminoles — a team Notre Dame beat head-to-head in the ‘Game of the Century’ earlier that season. Lou Holtz let poll voters hear it and the noise indirectly led to the birth of the Bowl Championship Series, a computer-based rankings system used to determine which two teams would play for the national title. Between 1988 and 1993, Notre Dame won 88 percent of its games and became one of America’s teams as a national television staple. But the Irish had plenty of enemies.
No doubt Notre Dame had plenty of enemies, Crawford is right about that and you can view his entire list here. The enemies are why the voters awarded Bobby Bowden a lifetime achievement award in the form of a national championship that season.
For fun, here is a quick look back in photos of the 1993 Game of the Century between No. 1 Florida State and No. 2 Notre Dame. If you don’t recall the game the frustrating thing is that the Irish really did lay the wood to the Seminoles that day but because of legit five dropped would-be interceptions and a couple of offensive lapses that kept Florida State even within shouting distance.
Regardless, enjoy the photos from Notre Dame’s 31-24 victory over the “national champs” that day below as plenty of the “experts” decided to overlook that event in early January.
