A look at a historic snapped streak early in 2022 Notre Dame football season
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One of the most impressive streaks in Notre Dame history came to a close after the Fighting Irish’s loss to Marshall. The Irish were ranked in 80 consecutive Associated Press top-25 polls from Week 5 of 2017 through Week 2 of 2022. The Thundering Herd stopped that streak in its tracks.
Notre Dame was a fixture in the AP poll the last five years. The Irish were ranked in the top five for at least a part of every season since 2017, including this year’s preseason No. 5 ranking. They rose as high as No. 2 in the country during their run to the College Football Playoff in 2020. In 2018, Notre Dame rose as high as No. 3 in the poll en route to earning its first ever CFP berth.
The Irish have been ranked in the poll at the end of every season since 2017, too. That streak has also been put in jeopardy after a 1-2 start. Notre Dame has not finished lower than No. 12 in the AP poll since 2017. The Irish were 11-2 with a win in the Camping World Bowl in 2019 when they finished with that ranking.
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The 80 straight weeks ranked in the AP poll marked a third-best streak for Notre Dame. It would have taken not falling out the poll for the duration of 2022 and staying ranked through the first half of the 2023 season to surpass the program’s second-best streak. Notre Dame was ranked for 97 consecutive weeks from 1969-75.
The top mark in program history is the 124 straight weeks Notre Dame was ranked from 1987-94. The common link between the No. 1 and No. 2 streaks in program history? National championships. The Irish won titles in 1973 under Ara Parseghian and 1988 under Lou Holtz. They were never able to rise to the mountaintop under Brian Kelly, the architect of the most recent AP poll streak.
Notre Dame’s longest Associated Press Poll ranking streaks
| Rank | Weeks | Years |
| 1. | 124 | 1987-94 |
| 2. | 97 | 1969-75 |
| 3. | 80 | 2017-22 |
| 4. | 75 | 1942-50 |
| 5. | 46 | 1952-56 |
