Things that have happened since Notre Dame last won a title

• Tom Brady entered the NFL, dominated for two decades, won seven Super Bowls, retired twice, and is still more relevant than Notre Dame football.
• We launched multiple rovers to Mars and watched them send back photos before Notre Dame sent back another trophy.
• The iPhone was invented, changed the world, and has gone through more model upgrades than Notre Dame has major bowl wins in that span.
• The Berlin Wall fell, the Cold War ended, and the Soviet Union dissolved—Notre Dame is still trying to figure out a functional modern offense.
• Blockbuster became a global powerhouse, collapsed, and basically disappeared—still a more complete character arc than Notre Dame this century.
• Harry Potter went from an unknown idea to a finished 7-book, 8-movie global franchise that actually stuck the landing.
• South Park premiered in the 90s and has stayed culturally relevant longer than Notre Dame has stayed nationally scary.
• Tiger Woods took over golf, imploded, rebuilt himself, and still returned to championship form before Notre Dame did.
• The Euro was created and became the dominant currency across Europe. Notre Dame’s dominant currency remains preseason hype.
• The Human Genome Project was conceived, funded, researched, completed, and publicly released. Notre Dame still hasn’t completed a modern title run.
• PlayStation released five generations of consoles. Notre Dame is still running on whatever firmware Lou Holtz installed.
• Amazon was founded in a garage, became one of the most valuable companies on Earth, and can get a TV to your door in a day—faster than Notre Dame can deliver meaningful results.
• Streaming killed cable, cable killed antenna, and we’ve cycled through entire eras of media consumption while Notre Dame cycles through “This is our year.”

If you're under 36 years old, you have never seen Notre Dame win a national title in your entire natural life.

Teams that have won national titles since Notre Dame's last one

Just in case anyone thinks this drought is normal.

• Alabama – turned title runs into a personality trait.
• Georgia – went back-to-back and then some while "Notre Dame is back" remained a running joke.
• Florida – grabbed multiple trophies with different coaches.
• Florida State – built a dynasty, collapsed, revived, and still has more recent hardware.
• LSU – won titles with multiple different head coaches.
• Miami – peaked, imploded, rebranded, and still owns more recent glory.
• Nebraska – dominated the 90s, fell off a cliff, and still has newer banners than 1988.
• Clemson – went from "little old Clemson" to multiple-time national champion.
• Ohio State – cycled coaches and still collected trophies.
• Oklahoma – picked one up under Stoops.
• Tennessee – won one with Peyton Manning's backup.
• Texas – did it with Vince Young in one of the greatest games ever played.
• Auburn – watched Cam Newton go full create-a-player and carry them to a title.
• Michigan – finally cashed another one in while Notre Dame was still "a year away."
• Colorado & Washington – even the early-90s split-title chaos has more recent banners than Notre Dame.

But yes, absolutely, this is the year Notre Dame is "back."