The making of a new college football rivalry? Why Notre Dame, Clemson believe time is right

Editors note: All week, The Athletic is writing about college football rivalries at a moment of change in the sport.

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When does a rivalry start? For Notre Dame and Clemson, it might feel like its begun in two years when the programs begin their 12-year series through 2038 .

The contract means a generation of Irish fans could see the Tigers like their fathers saw Miami or Penn State.

In reverse, Clemson fans may grow up with Notre Dame occupying similar real estate to Georgia.

Advertisement In this sports shifting landscape, rivalries are supposed to serve as a bedrock .

They mark the calendar and set family loyalties.

Which is why the Notre Dame-Clemson rivalry may have already started, depending on the point of view.

And in the case of former Tigers offensive lineman Eric Mac Lain, it began before he arrived at Death Valley.

Mac Llain grew up in North Carolina with northern Indiana roots, his father, Lt.

Col.

Michael Mac Lain, a product of Plymouth, about 30 miles south of the Golden Dome.

That made Notre Dame a spiritual home for Mac Lain, even if the Irish never seriously recruited him.

During a visit to Tennessee when Mac Lain met Lane Kiffin, the one-and-done Vols coach told the family that the recruitment must have been a dream come true.

The lieutenant colonel shot down the notion.

He looked at Kiffin dead in the eye and said, No sir, if this was my dream, youd be Charlie Weis and this would be Notre Dame, Mac Lain remembers.

The closest Mac Lain got to that dream came during his senior year when he started on the offensive line during Dabo Swinneys first national championship team.

The Bring Your Own Guts game of 2015 , played with Hurricane Joaquin as a meteorological backdrop, established Clemson at the head table of the sport, where it remains after two championships and five other trips to the CFP.

But that waterlogged night birthed a rivalry no one saw coming.

Led by Deshaun Watson and a defensive line built with three future first-round picks, Clemson raced to a 21-3 lead entering the fourth quarter.

Notre Dame, with an offensive line that included three top-10 picks, roared back, falling 24-22 when its two-point conversion got stuffed with seven seconds remaining.

With College GameDay soaked outside Memorial Stadium, Clemson announced itself as a new national power, hitting No.

1 in each of the next six seasons and playing for the title four times.

Arguably Brian Kellys most talented team never hit those heights, although the night offered a look at what Notre Dame needed to get there.

Everyone else just got a taste of peak college football.

Theyd crave more, which Notre Dame and Clemson delivered five times in the next eight seasons, including a double-overtime classic in South Bend, Trevor Lawrences revenge in the ACC Championship Game and first-year head coach Marcus Freemans validation.

In a realignment era when rivalries (and trophies) are forced upon fan bases, Notre Dame-Clemson has grown organically, fed by moments that would define seasons and careers.

Benjamin Morrisons pick six.

Justyn Rosss acrobatics.

Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoahs strip-score.

Advertisement When Notre Dame began its scheduling agreement with the ACC almost 11 years ago, it didnt go looking for a new rival.

Florida State and Miami were already there.

And when the Irish showed up on the leagues scheduling matrix, the Tigers saw more of a one-off opponent than a long-term partner.

South Carolina, Florida State and occasionally Georgia already served the rivalry purpose.

But its become increasingly hard to imagine Notre Dame without Clemson, a team it played only twice before 2015.

Both schools wanted to play badly enough that they went around future ACC schedules to get it done.

Notre Dame and Clemson were slated to play five times during a 12-year window, part of Notre Dames annual five-game agreement with the league.

The seven new matchups wont count as part of Notre Dames affiliation with the ACC.

Theyll just be good football games watched by a lot of people.

When Notre Dame played a full ACC schedule amid the pandemic in 2020 and met Clemson twice that season Notre Dames first win over No.

1 since 1993 followed by the ACCs most-watched title game ever the games averaged more than 10 million viewers.

Even in the relatively off-brand seasons that followed, Freemans first signature win and Swinney reestablishing his program a year later drew just under four million sets of eyes each.

From every angle the feedback has been, Man that makes a bunch of sense and thats gonna be a great thing.

And thats no matter what glasses youre wearing, said Clemson athletic director Graham Neff.

You could feel it build and build.

You could feel the momentum that this could be an established deal.

It just took a few years, athletic directors, presidents, head coaches and the reimagining of the college football postseason to get it all done.

When Notre Dame and Clemson agreed on their 12-year series on May 6, it was celebrated via group text among the schools athletic directors and presidents.

But Notre Dame president Rev.

Bob Dowd and athletic director Pete Bevacqua werent authors of the deals origin story.

Neff barely was, as he was promoted to athletic director in 2021.

The conversation starter for a rivalry that will help define the next decade for both programs was actually former Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick.

Advertisement An architect of the 12-team College Football Playoff, Swarbrick saw Clemson as a fix for multiple problems over the horizon.

Schedule strength the metric SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has harped on recently was set to become more important in CFP selections.

Notre Dames home slate of ACC opponents had begun to lack drawing power, with Florida State and Miami down.

Notre Dames rivalry with USC seemed secure, but the Stanford series was no longer must-see television.

In fact, NBC bumped the final quarter of last seasons 49-7 blowout to CNBC.

I believed and still hope that the CFP would place a much higher premium on strength of schedule, Swarbrick said.

So I was looking for ways to potentially lock in additional strength of schedule for Notre Dame.

Clemson was certainly high on my list.

Swarbrick didnt reveal the other programs under consideration for long-term agreements but admitted he explored potential matches with other schools.

Its just that Clemson made the most sense.

I knew we had some soft years for NBC, Swarbrick said.

I wanted to be able to point to something like this.

We got the USC rivalry, at least we think we do, now weve got the Clemson rivalry.

Youre gonna get two A games every year the way were gonna build this schedule.

One of Swarbricks final maneuvers as athletic director before stepping down was renewing the NBC contract through the 2029 season , believed to be lucrative enough to maintain Notre Dames independence.

In the penultimate season of that extension, NBC is scheduled to broadcast Notre Dame games against Texas, Clemson and Miami.

In the final year of the deal, the network is set to air Notre Dame games against Alabama and USC if that series is extended.

Swarbrick said brokering the Clemson series had nothing to do with USC potentially falling off the schedule , considering conversations began before the Trojans joined the Big Ten in full.

Still, the 12-year contract would help Notre Dame absorb losing USC if theres no common ground with the Trojans.

Advertisement The utility of scheduling certainty is good for Clemson, too, considering the uncertain future of a four-game series with Georgia and a home-and-home with Oklahoma.

If the SEC joins the Big Ten in playing nine conference games while also adding matchups between the conferences, it may squeeze future schedules with Notre Dame and Clemson.

Regardless, both schools playing each other should send a signal that strength of schedule is worth hunting, even if some programs are talking about pulling back.

It helps push the envelope in the industry, Neff said.

Were all talking about strength of schedule metrics and what it means for the CFP.

This is a mile marker for Clemson and Notre Dame.

These are big-time matchups for fans, but this was intended to push that CFP agenda, too.

Theres a business element for Clemson, as well, with the ACC moving to a weighted revenue sharing model where a majority of the leagues media rights money is split in accordance with the eyeballs that school draws.

Clemson was already at the head of the league table in terms of viewership.

By baking Notre Dame into its schedules, the program is guaranteed to stay there while likely grabbing a larger piece of the ACCs pie.

Its big business, said Mac Lain, an analyst for the ACC Network.

It isnt just, Oh these games are gonna be fun.

Its the big numbers, its making money and lets add a strength of schedule component for each of us.

Thats all true.

The Notre Dame-Clemson series can be a ratings monster that stacks up against the best of the SEC and Big Ten.

Its a gift for NBC and ESPN.

And it could be a tiebreaker for CFP selection if the committee rethinks the value of schedule strength compared to straight win-loss records.

If I was a selector, I would place a huge emphasis on who you choose to play outside your conference.

Those are the games you control, Swarbrick said.

When you choose to play nobody, that ought to go against your strength of schedule.

Advertisement These are all fringe benefits for two of college footballs biggest brands linking arms for a dozen years.

In a vacuum, one big brand versus another will almost always be set up for success.

Oregon versus Ohio State was too big to fail.

Same with Texas versus Georgia.

Maybe even Nebraska-Iowa.

But for a new rivalry to truly take, it cant just be about athletic department budgets and television ratings.

Theres got to be a soul there, too.

Ian Book watched on all fours from the goal line as Clemson linebacker Baylon Spector fell on the football in the end zone.

The quarterback had just coughed up the go-ahead touchdown in the biggest game of his career.

I remember very vividly fumbling and having like a moment, Book said.

Thats why I like that game the most.

Because I got over it.

Its hard to do.

Clemson took a lead in the final two minutes.

Then Book staged the greatest drive of his college career.

He took the Irish 91 yards in 92 seconds to tie it.

Book didnt throw an incompletion in either overtime.

Kyren Williams scored both touchdowns.

And when Notre Dames defense dropped Clemson tight end Braden Galloway to end it, Book charged the field alongside a student section that abandoned social distancing for a night in November 2020.

If that stadium was full, who knows what it could have been, Book said.

But that was awesome.

I loved that game.

From near the visitors tunnel, Neff, then the associate AD, caught Swarbricks eye from across the field, gave a wave and headed toward the locker room.

Swarbrick remembers thinking hed like to see more of this, although Clemsons blowout of Notre Dame in the ACC Championship Game probably wasnt what he had in mind.

Swarbrick thought Notre Dame and Clemson became rivals that night in South Bend.

Book just remembers a great game.

Neff thought the rivalry started a month later in Charlotte.

Advertisement To not have Notre Dame run through the regular season through the league, that was a source of pride for us, Neff said.

Thats the year when I felt, man, this is an epic rivalry.

Not only was it building, but it felt like it arrived.

Thats part of authentic rivalries, too: They mature at their own pace.

For a sport that runs on history and tradition, theres no substitute for letting collective memories form.

Notre Dame has provided them for Clemson.

Clemson has provided them for Notre Dame, probably more than the Tigers know.

When Swarbrick had to replace Brian Kelly, who bolted for LSU four years ago, Notre Dames former athletic director knew what he wanted in his next head coach.

In part because hed seen those traits work so well for Swinney.

The two characteristics at the top of my list for hiring that cycle was improve the culture and improve recruiting, Swarbrick said.

Clemson was really good at both.

Dabo had built a great culture there.

Given their history, they were so out-recruiting the expectation that it was notable.

And it was nice to have a little reinforcement that a position coach could be elevated to head coach and have success.

Late in his debut season, Freeman notched his first top-five win by blowing out Swinney in South Bend.

Fans stormed the field again.

There were just more of them this time.

It was the moment when the Freeman experiment looked like it might work.

The Irish have gone 27-6 since, including a run to the national championship game (and a loss at Clemson).

Just like how beating Notre Dame in that monsoon in 2015 helped send the Swinney era into a different orbit, beating Clemson in 2022 did the same for Notre Dame under Freeman.

Not every rivalry works for both parties quite like this.

Some rivalries work because theyre a zero-sum game.

Ohio States pain is Michigans pleasure .

Same thing with Auburn and Alabama.

But for Notre Dame and Clemson, the rivalry feels more like mutual jet fuel.

Advertisement Now were going to have an entire generation growing up on this.

Its going to be all they know, Mac Lain said.

Back in the 80s, it was Georgia.

In the 00s, it was Florida State.

Now its gonna be Notre Dame.

Its going to be the game you circle, the game you cant miss.

Starting two years from now, no one will have to.

Swarbrick believes Notre Dame and Clemson became rivals during that double-overtime win in South Bend, but he became sure six months later.

Right before graduation, the university produced a video asking students what they remembered about their unprecedented senior year.

The Clemson game wasnt just the majority answer.

It was the unanimous one.

One kid said, Did anyone not say the Clemson game? Swarbrick said.

There was a lot about that evening, but seeing months later those students point to that as the most important or memorable aspect of their senior year was really special.

(Illustration: Will Tullos / The Athletic ; photos: Michael Reaves, James Black, Greg Nelson / Getty Images).

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