Notre Dame vs. Michigan State: Clone Wars

In the past 15 years, Michigan State has quietly become Notre Dame’s alter-ego in college football.

For eight glorious years from 1987 through 1994, Notre Dame concocted an eight game win streak over Sparty. All praise and honor be to Papa Lou for bringing almost a decade of prosperity against this rival. Perhaps some credit goes to George Perles, too, since he was at the helm of MSU for these particular beatdowns – Notre Dame’s average margin of victory in this span was 16.5 points.

The series was put on hiatus for the 1995 and 1996 seasons, while Michigan State was getting their hand slapped by the NCAA for academic chicanery. Upon the restart of the series in 1997, Notre Dame had let the…