Early Bowl Projections Have Notre Dame In The New Year's Six

Early ESPN Bowl projections have Notre Dame slated to play in a New Year's Six game

The 9th-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish are off to a 3-0 start, and each win has been convincing. Notre Dame has beat its first three opponents by an average score of 47-10, scoring at least 40 points in the first three games of a season for the first time since 1932.

Notre Dame's 45-24 road victory over NC State is the most impressive win yet, but the schedule starts to pick up in the very near future. ESPN has taken notice of Notre Dame's strong start and the Irish are projected to play in a New Year's Six game according to ESPN's Mark Schlabach and Kyle Bonagura.

Schlabach has Notre Dame slated to play Penn State (2-0) in the Cotton Bowl, while Bonagura has Notre Dame slated for a rematch against Ohio State in the Orange Bowl.

Notre Dame and Penn State have a 9-9-1 series record, but the two teams haven't met since 2007 and they haven't played each other in a bowl game since the Gator Bowl back in 1976. Notre Dame won that game by a 20-9 score and went on to win a national championship the next season.

Notre Dame's last New Year's Six bowl victory was the Cotton Bowl, which came back on Jan. 1, 1994 when the Irish beat Texas A&M by a 24-21 score. It was their second straight Cotton Bowl win over the Aggies. Notre Dame played in the Cotton Bowl in 2018 when it hosted the semi-final game between the Irish and Clemson.

Notre Dame is 5-3 all-time in the Cotton Bowl, with two wins over Texas, two wins over Texas A&M and a win over Houston.

Notre Dame and Ohio State are slated to face each other on September 23rd inside Notre Dame Stadium. Prior to last year's matchup in Columbus, the previous two meetings between the Irish and Buckeyes were bowl games, with Ohio State beating Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl after the 2005 and 2015 seasons.

Notre Dame has played in the Orange Bowl five times and has a 2-3 record. Notre Dame's last Orange Bowl appearance was on Jan. 1, 1996 when the Irish lost to Florida State by a 31-26 score.

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