Notre Dame vs. Penn State
Notre Dame and Penn State have 20 meetings on file, the first in 1913; Notre Dame leads the series 10–9–1 in the games on file. Over the last 10 meetings it’s even at 5–5. Share
- Notre Dame wins
- 10
- Penn State wins
- 9
- Ties
- 1
- Earliest on file
- 1913
- Longest streak
- 3 Notre Dame
- Current streak
- 1 Notre Dame
- Last 10 meetings
- even at 5–5
- Most recent
- 2024
The series at a glance
| ’0 | ’1 | ’2 | ’3 | ’4 | ’5 | ’6 | ’7 | ’8 | ’9 | W–L | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1910s | 1–0 | ||||||||||
| 1920s | 2–0–1 | ||||||||||
| 1970s | 1–0 | ||||||||||
| 1980s | 3–6 | ||||||||||
| 1990s | 1–2 | ||||||||||
| 2000s | 1–1 | ||||||||||
| 2020s | 1–0 |
- Both ranked
- 8 meetings: Notre Dame 5, Penn State 3; 1 both in the top 10
- Average margin
- 12.4 points; 8 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
- At Notre Dame
- 5–3 Notre Dame’s record at home
- At Penn State
- 6–3–1 Penn State’s record at home
- Neutral sites
- 2–0 Notre Dame first
- Shutouts
- 2
Every meeting on file, as played. Ranks are the AP poll’s going in.
Games that tell the story
- Notre Dame’s biggest win1984: Notre Dame 44, Penn State 7by 37 points
- Penn State’s biggest win1985: Penn State 36, Notre Dame 6by 30 points
- Upset1990: Penn State 24, Notre Dame 21Penn State had a 32% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Ranked showdown2024: Notre Dame 27, Penn State 24No. 3 Notre Dame at No. 5 Penn State
- Ranked showdown1989: Notre Dame 34, Penn State 23No. 1 Notre Dame at No. 17 Penn State
- Ranked showdown1982: Penn State 24, Notre Dame 14No. 5 Penn State at No. 13 Notre Dame
- Ranked showdown1990: Penn State 24, Notre Dame 21No. 18 Penn State at No. 1 Notre Dame
Coach against coach
| Years | Notre Dame | Series | Penn State |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1925–1928 | Knute Rockne | 2–0–1 | Hugo Bezdek |
| 1981–1985 | Gerry Faust | 1–4 | Joe Paterno |
| 1986–1992 | Lou Holtz | 3–4 | Joe Paterno |
Head-coach pairings with three or more meetings on file, the series read from Notre Dame’s side (Rockne 2–0–1 against Bezdek). A season split between coaches goes to the one credited with the game.
Both programs through the years
Our Elo rating at the end of each season, a measure of how strong a team was, not a forecast; 1500 is an average FBS team.
Stars of the series
Biggest days
| Zakee Wheatley Penn State | 16 tackles, 1 sack, 1 for loss, 1 INT | 2024 Defense |
Named most valuable
| Al Hunter Notre Dame | 1976 |
| Jimmy Cefalo Penn State | 1976 |
Biggest days: the week’s best individual games by our big-days rule, from box scores (2004 on). Most valuable: as the games’ Wikipedia articles name them (CC BY-SA).
From the newspapers
1913 · Rock Island Argus, Rock Island, Ill., Nov 8, 1913
1925 · The Indianapolis times, Indianapolis [Ind.], Nov 9, 1925
1928 · Evening star, District of Columbia, Nov 4, 1928
Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The earliest meetings with a story on file; each game’s page has the full text.
On television
ESPN’s College GameDay has broadcast from this game once: 2024.
College GameDay’s sites from Wikipedia’s list of its locations (CC BY-SA).
Every game
Every game is listed as played on the field.