The Connecticut rivalry

1995 – present

The shape: The rivalry began with Notre Dame's arrival in the Big East in 1995 and outlasted the league that made it: fifty-seven meetings through 2025–26, Connecticut ahead 39–18 in the university's series accounting. No other opponent appears as often, or as high, in this section — the two programs have decided each other's seasons more often than any pairing of the era, and the rivalry's history is, in large part, the history of Notre Dame's place in the sport.

The tournament ledger: In the NCAA tournament the edge runs the other way: nine meetings, Notre Dame ahead 5–4. The wins are the program's signature games — the 2001 semifinal (90–75), and the semifinals of 2011 (72–63), 2012 (83–75, overtime), 2018 (91–89, overtime) and 2019 (81–76). The losses are its signature wounds: the 2013 semifinal (65–83), the finals of 2014 (58–79) and 2015 (53–63), and the 2026 Elite Eight (52–70). Notre Dame has beaten a top-ranked team five times in its history; all five were Connecticut — January 15 and March 30, 2001; April 3, 2011; January 5, 2013; and the 2018 semifinal, played March 30, 2018. (The record book's polls page misdates that last game to April 1, 2018, the day of the final; the semifinal was played on March 30, and this section prints the played date.)

The December fixture: When Notre Dame left for the ACC in 2013 the series continued as a December nonconference fixture, and the home wins in it are among the building's landmark nights: 74–60 on December 4, 2022, and 79–68 on December 12, 2024, both before sellout crowds. Connecticut won both meetings of 2025–26, the second of them the Elite Eight game that closes the current ledger.

Sources:

1. University record book — the series record (57 meetings, Connecticut 39–18); the NCAA tournament history (the nine meetings and their scores); the polls history (the five wins over No. 1 teams, all Connecticut, with the 2018 dating slip noted in the entry); the sellout list (the 2022 and 2024 December games).