Despite the one-sided result the last few decades, most Notre Dame and Navy fans consider the series a sacred tradition for historical reasons.

Notre Dame has since extended an open invitation for Navy to play the Fighting Irish in football and considers the game annual repayment on a debt of honor.

The series is marked by mutual respect, as evidenced by each team standing at attention during the playing of the other's alma mater after the game, a tradition that started in 2005.

Notre Dame and Stanford are regularly ranked in the U.S. News & World Report top 20 best colleges in America, and both share a mission to develop student athletes that can compete in the classroom and on the football field.

When the original shillelagh ran out of space for the Trojan heads and shamrocks after the 1989 game, it was retired and is permanently displayed at Notre Dame.

[10] The origin of the series is quite often recounted as a "conversation between wives"[11] of Notre Dame head coach Knute Rockne and USC athletic director Gywnn Wilson.

[12] Since 1961, the game has alternated between Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend in mid-October and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which serves as USC's home field, in late November.

[16] Boston College is considered to be a rival with Notre Dame based on both institutions' connection to the Roman Catholic Church[citation needed].

On October 9, 1943, top-ranked Notre Dame defeated second-ranked Michigan in the first matchup of top teams since the institution of the AP Poll in 1936.

In fact, the Fighting Irish did not lose to Northwestern again until September 1995, which was the beginning of a Rose Bowl season for the Wildcats and the two teams' last meeting for nearly 20 years.

The Fighting Irish's longtime series with the Pittsburgh Panthers, Notre Dame's fifth most played football opponent, began in 1909, and there have been no more than two consecutive seasons without two teams meeting each other except between 1913 and 1929, 1938–42, and 1979–81.

The longest game in Notre Dame history occurred between the two schools in 2008, when Pitt defeated ND in a record 4 overtimes by a field goal.

One of the most memorable games was the 1975 contest in which Notre Dame, trailing 30–10 in the fourth quarter, rallied behind Joe Montana for a 31–30 comeback win.

It marked the first time Notre Dame had lost to two service academies in the same season since 1944 and it was also a school-record sixth straight home loss for the Fighting Irish.

The teams will continue to meet on a semi-regular basis thereafter, due to Notre Dame's current commitment to scheduling several ACC opponents each season.

The Yellow Jackets were a longtime rival of the Fighting Irish and the two teams met periodically on an annual basis over the years, particularly from 1963 to 1981 when both schools were independents following Tech's departure from the Southeastern Conference.

Georgia Tech was the opponent in the inaugural game in the newly expanded Notre Dame Stadium in 1997, then a year later they met again in the Gator Bowl.

[10] The rivalry resumed in 2015 with a 30–22 Irish win in South Bend, and will continue on a semi-regular basis thereafter, due to Notre Dame's current commitment to scheduling several ACC opponents each season.

However, that one loss came in the 1950 season, and was a shocking result, considering that the Irish had won three of the last four national championships at the time, as well as four of the last seven Heisman Trophy winners.

Hostilities were fueled when the Hurricanes routed the Fighting Irish in the 1985 season finale 58–7, with Miami widely accused of running up the score in the second half.

Miami has the distinction of being the only team to shut out Notre Dame during the Ara Parseghian (0–0 in 1965), Gerry Faust (20–0 in 1983) and Lou Holtz (24–0 in 1987) eras.

The Fighting Irish and Hurricanes met again 20 years later, in the 2010 Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, where Notre Dame defeated Miami 33–17.

In 2012, the teams met again and Fighting Irish defeated the Hurricanes 41–3 at Soldier Field during its annual Shamrock Series, but that victory was later vacated for ND's use of ineligible players.

During the years of Notre Dame's famed Four Horsemen backfield from 1922 to 1924, the Fighting Irish compiled a record of 27–2–1, with their only losses coming to Nebraska in Lincoln (1922 and 1923).

The teams squared off in the 1973 Orange Bowl, a game in which the Huskers handed the Fighting Irish their worst defeat under Ara Parseghian, 40–6.

The Irish and North Carolina Tar Heels first met in 1949 in Yankee Stadium with Notre Dame winning 42–6 en route to a national championship.

Trailing 14–6 in the fourth quarter on a brutally hot day in Chapel Hill, Joe Montana entered the game and engineered the first of his many comebacks, completing a game-winning, 80-yard touchdown pass to Ted Burgmeier with just over a minute left to play to secure a 21–14 victory.

The teams will continue on a semi-regular basis thereafter as part of Notre Dame's current commitment to schedule several ACC opponents each year.

However, the Fighting Irish and Nittany Lions recent successes and other factors led to the renewal of the rivalry in 2006–07, in which the teams split both games.

Notre Dame defeated Penn State 27–24 on a game-winning field goal with 10 seconds left to advance to the National Championship game.