The Navy Midshipmen will face a heavily-favored Notre Dame Fighting Irish team overseas.
For the 96th time, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will face the Navy Midshipmen on the college football gridiron.
Although the all-time series is completely lopsided in the Gold Domers' favor, this remains one of the most important rivalries in all of college football, mostly because it is the biggest reason outside of the sweet TV deal with NBC as to why Notre Dame has not joined a conference. Even the Midshipmen compete for conference championships as a football member in the American Athletic Conference...
With toe meeting leather over in Dublin on Saturday, here is what you need to know about this rivalry.
Notre Dame vs. Navy: Previous meetings, head-to-head records
Entering Week 0's matchup at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, the Fighting Irish hold a 79-13-1 advantage over the Midshipmen in their 95 previous contests to date. Notre Dame has won the last five meetings dating back to 2017. Navy clipped the Irish in Jacksonville by a point in 2016, but hadn't won their most recent matchup up to that point until the 2010 game in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Historically, the Irish have dominated this game featuring two major college brands. Prior to taking three of four from the Irish from 2007 to 2010, Notre Dame won a staggering 43 in a row over the Midshipman from 1964 to 2006. This game often will be played at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, but has moved around a good bit when the Annapolis-based Midshipmen are the "home" team.
Prior to COVID, this game had been played every year annually from 1927 to 2019. Although the Fighting Irish and the Midshipmen still played football games that season, they were unable to meet on the gridiron to keep the streak intact. So despite this being one of the most lopsided rivalries in major college football, why do they keep playing it? Well, it has everything to do with World War II...
During the war, Navy made Notre Dame's campus a training center for V-12 candidates, helping the all-male private Catholic school stay afloat. Thus, Notre Dame has always extended an offer for the Midshipmen to play them annually as a means of repaying them for what they did for them back in World War II. Of course, other major programs have annual rivals who don't play in their conference.
It may be a lopsided affair yet again, but we did see Notre Dame fall to Marshall and Stanford last year.
