Notre Dame Football: South Bend renames street for Michigan rivalry

As some of you may be aware, college football officially starts this weekend. Here’s how Notre Dame football chose to celebrate.

This year’s opening weekend in college football is better than most. You have a bunch of marquee teams playing each other, which is not always the case.

Just to name a few, you have ninth-ranked Auburn playing sixth-ranked Washington, Tennessee facing West Virginia, No. 1 Alabama playing Louisville, No. 19 Florida State and No. 20 Virginia Tech, No. 25 LSU playing No. 8 Miami and finally, the mac-daddy of all historic matchups, Michigan (No. 14) and Notre Dame (No. 12).

Now, I am not an advocate for the Big Ten, or for Notre Dame for that matter, but if this game is close it’s destined to be one of the best games this season.  These two teams have been duking it out on the gridiron since the 19th freaking century –1887, to be precise. So yeah, there’s some history there.

They also have been bickering about stats for a million years, too. Michigan claims to have the No. 1 in all-time win percentage, while Notre Dame isn’t far behind at No. 4. They also argue over national championships — both schools claim 11 national titles (the NCAA doesn’t agree with that number, but still). Needless to say, there’s a tiny bit of rancor between the two teams.

You know a game is destined to be a classic when ESPN GameDay will be on site. To celebrate the upcoming matchup, Notre Dame renamed one of the streets in South Bend from Michigan Street to Fighting Irish Drive. Of course, if Notre Dame chokes it’s going to look pretty silly. Here’s a video of the naming ceremony.

Yes, it’s only temporary, but you have to applaud that kind of commitment.