At the start of the 1991 season, NBC introduced something new to college football fans.

The network acquired the rights to exclusively broadcast Notre Dame Fighting Irish home games and put together a fluid opening montage highlighting the program’s glorious history, punctuated by a cameraman walking down the steps from the locker room to the field. Excerpts from legendary coach Knute Rockne’s speeches were layered around notable highlights and shots of the famous “Play Like a Champion” sign that will forever be part of the program’s history. The fight song played in the background to give it a familiar tune that tied everything together in a television show that undoubtedly focused on the South Bend program first and everyone else second.

At the end, as the cameraman reached field level, broadcaster Dick Enberg began to preview the Irish that year under Lou Holtz. After completing all the necessary pitches for the home team, the visitors from Bloomington, Indiana were finally informed that the in-state rivalry with the Indiana Hoosiers would be rekindled for the first time in 33 years.

The thing about a rivalry, however, is that more than just geography has to play a role – the two teams have to actually play to get the tension flowing. The Irish and Hoosiers, 199 miles apart from stadium gate to stadium gate, have not met since that historic opener.

Until this week, when just the 30th meeting between the programs will take place under the fanfare of the College Football Playoff in the first-ever game on campus as part of the 12-team first round. It will likely be brought up again – coincidentally in the first non-NBC broadcast of a Notre Dame home game since 1990 – that there is a further three-decade gap since the two met.

If you’re expecting there to be tension on Friday night, you’ll probably be disappointed.

When Indiana coach Curt Cignetti strolled to midfield at Assembly Hall after his first job last year, he made it explicit what he thought of the Hoosiers’ main in-state rival, the Purdue Boilermakers: They sucked. Next mentioned were the Big Ten’s two marquee giants, the Michigan Wolverines and the Ohio State Buckeyes, who had won the last seven conference titles in football at the time, when they said he wouldn’t take a backseat to anyone.

Left unsaid? A certain national power 3½ hours north that generally remained out of sight and out of mind, except for the fans who go over to support Irish soccer as well as Hoosiers basketball.

It is unknown whether Cignetti was informed of the rivalry dynamic by school administrators when he got the job or whether he googled the matter himself. But it adds an element for outsiders to follow the CFP conflict far beyond state borders, with massive implications for both sides.

“I think for me and our guys it’s just another game. You prepare for these, just as you prepare for all of them. I think our players will be excited to play and prove something,” Cignetti said. “At the end of the day it’s just football. The game is won or lost between the white lines. I want them to go out there, fly around, have a little fun and play the way we know how to play.”

It may just be football for the roughly 160 players lining the sidelines in the icy conditions at Notre Dame Stadium, but the historic meeting will have no shortage of intrigue or hype.

Touchdown Jesus will be fully enlightened. The goblin will dance. Green and gold mix with lots of red and white candy stripes.

It is Hoosiers vs. Rudy– not in a debate about which sports classic was the better film, but for the right to ring in the new year at the Sugar Bowl against the Georgia Bulldogs and get one step closer to winning a national championship.

“This opportunity motivates them more than anything else,” Irish coach Marcus Freeman said. “They’re motivated to play in the first-ever playoff game at Notre Dame Stadium against a heck of a football team (from) Bloomington, Indiana, and that’s the motivation more than anything else.”

The casual viewer probably won’t bat an eyelid at Notre Dame hosting such an event, given the history surrounding South Bend – 11 national titles and seven Heisman Trophy winners. The Irish also have the duality of being one of the most followed teams in the country and can lay claim to being the most hated.

Still, things haven’t been smooth sailing this season for Notre Dame, which started atop the CFP after an upset win over the Texas A&M Aggies before being overwhelmed by the Northern Illinois Huskies in Week 2.

Looking back, this result is the most puzzling of the season, as the Huskies lost their next two games and were never truly in contention for the MAC title.

“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about that (NIU) loss or upset about it. Fear is a motivator,” said Freeman, who signed a hefty contract extension this week. “Many people are motivated by fear or greed, and sometimes I have to remind myself that this is the result of improper preparation. But sometimes it takes the performance we had against NIU to go back and say, ‘Wait a minute. What lessons do we need to learn?’ ”

Apparently a lot, as Notre Dame was on a knife edge in the eyes of the selection committee and suffered the worst loss imaginable.

The Irish beat Purdue 66-7 to offset some of the frustrations and slowly built momentum from there. There was a 49-7 loss to the rival Stanford Cardinal and a 51-14 loss to the Navy Midshipmen, who were ranked in the top 25 at the time. This ended a season in which Notre Dame scored at least 35 points per game and its defense rose to third in the country in points allowed per game.

Other than the Oregon Ducks, perhaps no one enters the College Football Playoff with more momentum than the Irish.

“Our goal is to get a little better every day at what we do that day. I think we’ve done that all season,” offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said. “That trend continues with this group because of the work they put in and the attention to detail.”

If that can get Notre Dame where it needs to be at this point in the season, the same can be said for the Hoosiers.

The Hoosiers were ranked 17th in Cleveland.com’s annual preseason Big Ten football poll. If you could even find a sportsbook that would give you national title odds on the team, you would be looking in the +100,000 range.

However, Cignetti is an experienced trainer who knows how to build a program regardless of resources. He was part of Nick Saban’s staff in the early days of the Alabama Crimson Tide dynasty. He successfully turned around teams like the Division II Indiana University (of Pennsylvania) Crimson Hawks and FCS Elon Phoenix and elevated the James Madison Dukes into the FBS ranks as a rising Sun Belt power.

Turning around the Hoosiers’ fortunes was even easier because the transfer portal and immediate eligibility allowed 13 former Dukes from JMU’s 2023 team, who went 11-2, to join the migration to the Midwest.

“I’ve known these guys for a long time. I was thinking about this recently. I’ve known (defensive lineman) James Carpenter since 2019 and thought it was going to be weird being on a defense that didn’t have James Carpenter,” defensive coordinator Bryant Haines said. “They were great. They changed the culture. They’re a big part of what you’re seeing now in terms of the change in IU football from the guys we brought in from JMU, no question.”

Everything that followed since then was the best season in school history, with records for total wins and most offensive touchdowns in a single season and the most unexpected run to the playoffs.

“Obviously it’s an 11-1 football team. “Very talented, but you can tell they’re well-coached,” Freeman said. “They play, as I often say, with the clarity that one is looking for. If you watch film, it’s a team that plays fast. A team that understands what they do, why they do it and how they do it.

“We are aware that it will be a big challenge for us.”

With such an unusual story, it’s fitting that the next move comes against a Notre Dame team that was largely off Indiana’s radar. The two schools have a home game scheduled in 2030 and 2031, but few expected the two to renew their in-state rivalry by then — let alone with everything on the line in the playoffs.

There may not be too much rivalry between the two at the moment, aside from intra-family squabbles, but things will surely change after Friday night. In the state of Indiana, bragging rights are on the line, and neither side is backing down from the challenge.