When Was Notre Dame Last Considered a True No. 1 Team Heading Into a Season?

As soon as I saw Josh Pate's post-spring rankings - with Notre Dame in the top spot - the question popped into my brain.

How long has it been since Notre Dame was considered a true No. 1 team going into a season?

🚨POST-SPRING COMMISSIONER’S POLL🚨 pic.twitter.com/4vmLJpLHoH
— Josh Pate (@JoshPateCFB) May 4, 2026

When was the last time the Irish got a single No. 1 vote in the preseason Associated Press Poll?

That's the question that needed to be asked (and answered) after seeing Pate's take.

He likely won't be alone in his belief that the Irish might be No. 1, but when was the last time that the Irish got a single No. 1 vote in the preseason AP Poll?

You guessed it. It's been 20 years. The 2006 Notre Dame squad, to be exact.

That's a long time for a program that, again, a casual fan assumes is always overrated entering the season. Mind you, Notre Dame has since been to a pair of national championships.

That's more than someone like Boise State or West Virginia can say, yet both have earned more recent No. 1 votes in the preseason AP Poll.

Boise State had consecutive years in which it earned preseason No. 1 votes (2010 and 2011).

Now is the part where you argue that the preseason poll doesn't mean anything, and that it's all useless conversation starters that get erased by actual games.

That's fair .... to an extent. It's also worth noting that from 2005-25, the preseason AP No. 1 went on to win the national championship just once, and it was a 2017 Alabama team that many argued wasn't worthy of a Playoff inclusion.

What has Notre Dame aimed to do under Marcus Freeman, though? Change the 21st century narrative

At this point, winning a national title is the only thing that'll do that.

A year-long belief that such a possibility exists in South Bend has also been virtually non-existent when you consider that the national runner-up seasons came in 2012 when the Irish started unranked, and in 2024 when the Irish started ranked No. 7, but obviously that was followed with the stunning Week 2 loss to Northern Illinois in what's become an all-too-familiar September trend.

The 2006 season famously started with that preseason No. 2 ranking for that Brady Quinn-led squad, and it ended with a blowout loss to LSU in the Sugar Bowl.

That, of course, was part of an 0-8 start in BCS/New Year's 6/College Football Playoff games in the 21st century.

That drought finally ended in 2024 when Notre Dame's Playoff run included a pair of wins top five teams in the AP Poll. Prior to that, Notre Dame's 21st-century record vs. teams in the top 5 of the AP Poll was 3-22.

A casual fan won't change its perception of Notre Dame based on the fact that Freeman has accounted for more wins vs. top-5 foes (3) in the 21st century than the rest of its coaches combined (2).

Casual fans don't dictate legacies, but delivering on offseason hype does

The great coaches do that routinely. Starting and finishing as an AP Top 5 team is something that coaches like Ryan Day (five times) and Kirby Smart (four times) are tasked with doing on an annual basis.

Freeman isn't just trying to that for the first time; he's trying to lead Notre Dame to its first such season since 1992.

That's probably not something that's emphasized directly between those hallowed walls. It shouldn't need to be.

You also won't get Freeman mentioning that FanDuel has Notre Dame with the most favorable odds of any team in the sport to make the Playoff at -700. That factors in strength of schedule, which shouldn't have any bearing on a preseason ranking, but the point stands.

It's possible that Notre Dame receives at least one preseason No. 1 vote and starts off as a top-4 team for the first time in two decades.

Time will tell if a historic start and finish to 2026 awaits Notre Dame. For now, though, we can conclude an obvious post-spring takeaway.

All eyes are on South Bend.

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