Notre Dame National Championships: Wins, history, winningest coaches ahead of CFP title game vs. Ohio State

So it comes down to this: Notre Dame will face Ohio State in the CFP National Championship Game, the first under the 12-team Playoff format, Monday in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

As far as chasing titles goes, this is not Notre Dame’s first rodeo. But should they prevail, it will be their first title in almost four decades, with the last coming in a college football landscape that looked worlds different from today’s.

Keep reading for all you need to know about Notre Dame’s championship-rich history, the company that Marcus Freeman and co. are trying to join and what new pages the Fighting Irish can write on Monday.

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These championships were not won via officially designated national championship games, but rather by polls conducted at the end of the season. Eight of the program’s titles came via the AP Poll, the highest-regarded championship decider from its 1936 inception through 1997. Notre Dame’s first three championships are based on methodologies such as the Dickinson System and, retroactively, the College Football Researchers Association.

The kicker: Notre Dame is tied for the second-most national championships since the beginning of the AP Poll (1936), behind only Alabama … and tied with, yes, Ohio State.

Until Monday.

Again, there was no firm “national championship game” yet in 1988, but that season’s Fiesta Bowl featured two undefeated teams – No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 3 West Virginia – so it effectively served that purpose. The Fighting Irish beat the Mountaineers 34-21 and were subsequently crowned.

It’s Notre Dame’s most recent national championship. Monday will be the second time Notre Dame has played in an official national championship game, after losing to Alabama in the 2012 BCS National Championship Game. (The Irish’s wins from that season and the following, though, were later vacated.)

Frank Leahy has the most national titles as a coach in Notre Dame history, winning four times in the 1940s. Knute Rockne trails him with the first three claimed titles in program history. Ara Parseghian won twice, while Lou Holtz and Dan Devine earned one apiece.

The last Fighting Irish coach to win it all was Lou Holtz, making him the fifth to lead Notre Dame to the promised land.

Current head coach Marcus Freeman is chasing some peculiar history: With a win over Ohio State on Monday, Freeman will become the fourth head coach to lead Notre Dame to a national championship in his third season at the helm. It would be the third title in the program’s last four to come in a coach’s Year 3: Parseghian did it in 1966, Devine in 1977 and Holtz in 1988.

You don’t have to remind Freeman of that history.0 seconds of 1 minute, 25 seconds