Editor’s Note: The original intention of the “30 Years of Notre Dame on NBC” series was to set the stage for the 30th year of the partnership. But then 2020 intervened with a fury, and the season did not grant the time to publish the last half dozen entries. As 2020’s reach lengthens 2021’s winter doldrums, there is no reason not to walk down those memory lanes now.
It takes luck to go on the road to beat the country’s No. 1 team and eventual Heisman winner, and while Notre Dame may not have been on the road when it faced Nebraska in 2000, it may as well have been.