Notre Dame claims eleven national championships, the NCAA recognises thirteen, and at least one selector has named the Irish champion in 22 different seasons. Five coaches won the eleven, and the most recent was Lou Holtz in 1988. The 37 years since are the longest the program has ever gone without one.
The Eleven Claimed Titles
| Season | Coach | Record | How it was decided |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1924 | Knute Rockne | 10, 0 | Consensus, Rose Bowl over Stanford |
| 1929 | Knute Rockne | 9, 0 | Consensus, every game on the road |
| 1930 | Knute Rockne | 10, 0 | Consensus, Rockne’s last season |
| 1943 | Frank Leahy | 9, 1 | AP poll |
| 1946 | Frank Leahy | 8, 0, 1 | AP poll, after the 0 to 0 tie with Army |
| 1947 | Frank Leahy | 9, 0 | AP poll |
| 1949 | Frank Leahy | 10, 0 | AP poll |
| 1966 | Ara Parseghian | 9, 0, 1 | AP and Coaches, after the 10 to 10 tie with Michigan State |
| 1973 | Ara Parseghian | 11, 0 | AP poll, Sugar Bowl over Alabama |
| 1977 | Dan Devine | 11, 1 | Consensus, Cotton Bowl over Texas |
| 1988 | Lou Holtz | 12, 0 | Consensus, Fiesta Bowl over West Virginia |
The Two Recognised but Not Claimed
The NCAA lists Notre Dame as champion in 1919 and 1964 as well. The 1919 team went 9 and 0 in Rockne’s second season and was named by several retroactive selectors. The 1964 team, in Ara Parseghian’s first year, went 9 and 1 and was ranked first until a last minute loss at USC in the final game; the Football Writers had already voted and gave Notre Dame their title. The school claims neither.
Count every selector who has ever named Notre Dame champion and the total is 22, the most of any program after Princeton and Yale. Our page on most national championships explains why the number moves.
Rockne’s Three
The 1924 team was the Four Horsemen, immortalised by Grantland Rice after the Army game, and finished 10 and 0 with a Rose Bowl win over Stanford. It was the program’s first bowl and its last for 44 years. The 1929 team won the title without playing a single home game, because Cartier Field had been demolished to build the new stadium. The 1930 team opened that stadium, went 10 and 0, and Rockne died in a plane crash the following March.
Leahy’s Four
Four titles in seven seasons, split around two years of wartime naval service. The 1946 team is the one people remember, for the 0 to 0 tie with Army at Yankee Stadium between the top two teams in the country, a game with four Heisman winners on the field. Notre Dame took the poll. From 1946 through 1949 the Irish went 36 games without a loss.
Parseghian’s Two
The 1966 title was decided by a 10 to 10 tie with Michigan State in East Lansing, when Parseghian ran out the clock rather than risk a turnover, a decision that has been criticised for 60 years and that the polls rewarded anyway. The 1973 championship came in the Sugar Bowl, a 24 to 23 win over Bear Bryant’s Alabama that ended a 30 year bowl drought. Our bowl history page covers both postseason titles.
1988: The Last One
Lou Holtz’s third team went 12 and 0, beat No. 1 Miami 31 to 30 in South Bend in October and beat No. 3 West Virginia 34 to 21 in the Fiesta Bowl. It remains the program’s most recent championship. Notre Dame has played for the title three times since, losing the 2012 BCS final to Alabama and the 2024 playoff final to Ohio State, and the wait is now 37 years.
The Bottom Line
Notre Dame claims eleven national championships, three under Knute Rockne, four under Frank Leahy, two under Ara Parseghian and one each under Dan Devine and Lou Holtz. The NCAA recognises thirteen. The most recent came in 1988, and the 37 years since are the longest gap in program history. Our national champions by year page has every season.