notre dame football

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the football team of the University of Notre Dame. The team competes as an Independent at the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision level.
Notre Dame has the most consensus national championships and has produced more All-Americans than any other Football Bowl Subdivision school. Additionally, seven Fighting Irish football players have won the Heisman Trophy.
Notre Dame is one of only two Catholic universities that field a team in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the other being Boston College, and one of a handful of programs independent of a football conference. The team plays its home games on Notre Dame's campus at Notre Dame Stadium, also known as the "House that Rockne Built," which has a capacity of 80,795. The current head coach is Charlie Weis.Notre Dame has won eight wire (AP or Coaches) national championships. Notre Dame claims national championships in an additional three seasons, for a total of 11 consensus national championships. Notre Dame, however, is often credited with 13 national championships in total. The 1938 and 1953 seasons are the reason for the discrepancy. In 1938, 8-1 Notre Dame was awarded the national championship by the Dickinson System, while Texas Christian (which finished 11-0) was awarded the championship by the Associated Press. In the 1953 season, an undefeated Notre Dame team (9-0-1) was named national champion by every major selector except the AP and UPI (Coaches) polls, where the Irish finished second in both to 10-1 Maryland. As Notre Dame has a policy of only recognizing AP and Coaches Poll national championships post-1936, the school does not officially recognize the 1953 national championship.[1][2] Notre Dame has been voted "national champion" by at least one selector in an additional eight seasons (1919, 1920, 1927, 1964, 1967, 1970, 1989, 1993)Notre Dame is one of a few schools to have over 800 wins. Some other schools with 800 wins are Michigan, Yale, Nebraska and Texas. Notre Dame has the 2nd highest winning percentage in NCAA history (.744), second only to Michigan (.745).[4] The football program is tied with USC for most Heisman trophy winners at seven (Ohio State has seven Heisman trophies that were won by six players). It has also produced the most All-Americans, including consensus All-Americans(79 with 96 selections).[5] Nine former players are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, second only to USC(10). Notre Dame has produced the largest number of players to go on to play in the National Football League of any program in the country. As of the 2007 NFL draft, 459 players have been drafted. [6] Helped by its status as a highly regarded academic institution (ranked 19th by U.S. News & World Report) [7], Notre Dame is second only to Nebraska in Academic All-Americans (43). Notre Dame is represented by 47 players and coaches in the College Football Hall of Fame, the most of any university.[8][9] Since 1962, Notre Dame has graduated 98.74% of its football players in four years. As of 2006, only 13 football players in this time have left Notre Dame without finishing their degree requirements. Also of note is the 90% graduation rate of ND's African-American players (only Navy and Boston College have higher African American graduation rates)[10] Notre Dame has had 12 undefeated seasons and 10 others with at most one loss or tie. Notre Dame has only had 12 losing seasons in 118 seasons of playing football. The football program is also known for ending the Oklahoma NCAA record winning streak of 47 games in 1957. Incidentally, Oklahoma's 28-21 loss to Notre Dame to open the 1953 season was the last loss before the beginning of the streak. Notre Dame also holds the NCAA record for Most consecutive wins over one opponent, beating the US Naval Academy (USNA) 43 times in a row before falling to them in overtime in 2007. As of 2007, Notre Dame is one of only five of the 119 Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) teams to have never played a Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) team since the division was made in 1978