The 2007 college football season has had its share of monumental upsets. The Mountaineers of 1-AA Appalachian State stunned Michigan in the Big House in September and 41-point underdog Stanford shocked No. 1 USC last week in the LA Coliseum.

 

But you could search the entire history of the Grand Old Game and you’d be hard-pressed to find a single contest the rocked the college football world with greater impact than Boston College’s last-second 41-39 victory over No. 1 Notre Dame at South Bend in 1993.

 

Notre Dame fell from the top spot in the nation’s polls that day. Fourteen years later, and it’s still never been back.

 

The Fighting Irish were flying high entering the 1993 Boston College game. A week earlier No. 2 Notre Dame knocked off No. 1 Florida State with a 31-24 victory in South Bend.

 

The FSU-ND game achieved so much hype that it was dubbed the “Game of the Century.” It lived up to the hype, too, with the Irish holding on as Florida State’s Heisman-winning quarterback Charlie Ward nearly pulled together a game-tying, last-second drive.

 

With the win over the Seminoles, Notre Dame climbed to 10-0 and the only thing standing between the Irish and a coronation game on New Year’s Day was the “Holy War” against 7-2 Boston College, in a game that pitted the lone Catholic universities that play Division 1 football.

 

Boston College was the No. 17 team in the country, but few gave the Eagles a shot in South Bend. After all, Notre Dame not only just toppled the unbeatable Seminoles a week earlier, they destroyed an unbeaten BC team, 54-7, just one year before.

 

But Boston College dominated the 1993 game and took an amazing 38-17 lead into the fourth quarter. The Irish stormed back by scoring three touchdowns in 11 minutes to take a 39-38 lead in the final two minutes. But Notre Dame’s title hopes would fall short as Boston College kicker David Gordon nailed a wobbly 41-yard game winner as the clock expired.

 

The Notre Dame dynasty expired with it.

 

At the end of the season, the national championship was awarded to 11-1 Florida State, even though the Seminoles had lost to 11-1 Notre Dame in November.

 

Boston College’s upset win did more than impact the 1993 national title: it changed the landscape of Notre Dame football forever.

 

Fast forward 14 years and Boston College is now the undefeated team with national title dreams heading into a

renewal of the Holy War today in South Bend. Notre Dame enters the game with a single victory and may be the worst team in the long, proud history of the nation’s most famous football team.

 

The impact of Saturday’s game on both programs remains to be seen. But Cold, Hard Football Facts show just how much impact the 1993 meeting between the two had on Notre Dame football and on the college game in general, which lost a perennial title contender that day. 

 

Here’s a Tale o’ the Tape look at the Notre Dame football program both before and since the 1993 loss to Boston College.

 

Category	Before 1993 BC loss	After 1993 BC loss
Win percentage	.778	.611
Home win percentage	.777	.699
Wins as No. 1 team in AP poll	62	0
Weeks ranked in AP poll	567 of 735 (77%)	138 of 226 (61%)
Consensus national championships	11	0
Bowl game record	11-6 (.647)	2-9 (.181)
First-round NFL draft picks	49 in 57 years	11 in 15 years
Record against BC	4-0 (1.000)	5-7 (.417)*
Pct. of seasons with 10 or more wins	22.4%	15.4%
Percentage of seasons with losing record	7.5%	23.0%
Record against USC	38-23-4 (.615)	4-8-1 (.346)
Heisman Trophy winners	7	0
Consensus first-team All-Americans	29	1
Seasons finished in AP Top 10	33	2
Undefeated seasons	22	0

* includes 1993 loss

 

Outside of defeating West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl to win the 1988 national championship, the 1993 Holy War is arguably the biggest game Notre Dame has played in the last 20 years. They were essentially playing for the title that day and, since losing, they have rarely been able to beat high-quality programs in big games.

 

Prior to the 1993 BC game, the Irish were 11-6 in bowl games and had won 11 national championships. Since losing to BC, the Irish are 2-9 in bowl game, including losses in their last nine straight, many of them of the woodshed variety. And, of course, they’ve never again competed for a national title.

 

Prior to 1993, Notre Dame was 4-0 all time vs. Boston College. Since then, the Irish are 5-6 and have lost their last four games against the Eagles.

In recent years Notre Dame has shifted from a perennial national championship contender to a popular topic for late-night TV jokes.

 

Before the 1993 BC game, the Irish had won 77.8 percent of all the games in their history, which dates back to 1887. It was the greatest win percentage in college football history. Since that 1993 BC game, the Irish have won 61.1 percent of their games and are sinking fast.

 

No Irish team has ever lost more than 8 games in a season. But the 2007 version is 1-5 with six to play (including today’s BC game).

 

Notre Dame used to be the pinnacle of college football, the top choice of nearly ever recruit and a fan favorite across the country, as evidenced by the fact that it's the only team in North American sports with its own national broadcasting contract (and on both TV and radio).

 

Today Notre Dame is still a fan favorite and still successfully recruits some of the best high school players in the country, but there is little question they have fallen behind the likes of USC, Florida, Ohio State and other when it comes time to recruit top talent and field winning programs.

 

Notre Dame boasted a then-record seven Heisman Trophy winners from 1941 to 1987, and none since. It’s been 19 years since the Irish last went undefeated, and 1993 was their closest run.

 

And, since losing to Boston College in 1993, Notre Dame has had more losing seasons (three) than consensus All-Americans (one).

 

Even with their struggles, including three new coaches, it hasn’t been all bad for the Irish. In 2002, Tyrone Willingham’s first season as Notre Dame’s head man, thoughts of a national championship were rekindled.

 

The 2002 Irish were 8-0 and had climbed all the way up to No. 4 in the nation after beating Florida State. Sports Illustrated even declared in bold letters on its cover: "Notre Dame is back!"

 

The Irish were back ... until Boston College arrived at South Bend and knocked off the undefeated Irish again.

 

Notre Dame finished that season 10-3 and out of title contention. They floundered to 5-7 and 6-6 records the following two seasons, and Willingham was pointed to the door.

It would be naïve to say the 1993 loss to Boston College in the Holy War was the sole reason for the decline and fall of Notre Dame football.

 

Most folks try to pin the blame on the decline of Notre Dame football to a decline in talent. But consider that in the 15 NFL drafts following the 1993 loss, 11 Notre Dame players have been selected in the first round of the NFL draft (and a potential 12th, WR Jeff Samardzija, opted to play baseball instead of enter the 2007 draft). That’s the same number of Golden Domers – 11 – who were taken in the first round of the 15 drafts before the 1993 loss (and three off those were from its 1977 national title team taken in 1978).

 

The talent may still be coming: According to Scout.com Notre Dame hauled in the 11th-rated recruiting class last year and currently has the top-rated class for 2008.

 

But whatever the reason – talent, coaching, and just the natural order of things – there’s no doubt that Notre Dame is a mere shadow of the mighty program it was for more than 100 years. And there’s no doubt that the 1993 loss to Boston College was the singular tipping in the modern history of Notre Dame football, the holy line of demarcation of the pigkin papacy.

 

On the morning of Nov. 20, 1993, Notre Dame was the unbeaten, undisputed No. 1 team on the country, the proud heirs of the nation’s greatest football program. By that afternoon, they had become just another team.

 

It is clear the BC Eagles have stamped their name in the Irish history books. Now, with the tables turned today, the only question is, can Notre Dame do the same?