ND Spirit vs Spirituality: Ch 2

Click here to see chapter 1 of this series.

In order to consider the interaction between Notre Dame's football program and its place as a religious institution, I thought we should evaluate the peer group to see what other programs share this trait. My research assistant has gone through the 119 institutions which play Div 1 college football and the removed the obviously public institutions which are, by law, secular. The following is a rundown of the remaining institutions and what can be gleaned regarding their religious affiliation from the web.


Texas Christian University - associated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

University of Southern California - private university with no religious affiliation. Interestingly enough, of the limited information on the school website, they point out that the three founders were a Protestant, Catholic, and a Jew, which seems intended to stress their secular nature.

Brigham Young University - associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Named after the early Mormon leader who was also the first governor of the state of Utah.

University of Miami - private secular university.

University of Tulsa - private university affiliated with the Presbyterian church

Boston College - private college associated with the Catholic Church, founded and operated by the Jesuits (Society of Jesus)

Wake Forest University - private university founded by North Carolina Baptists. Unsure of present religious affiliation - mission statement mentions religious pluralism but there is also a recently added divinity school with Baptist and Presbyterian studies.

Stanford University - private university with no religious affiliation.

Northwestern University - private university founded by Methodists but with no current religious affiliation.

Baylor University - private university affiliated with the Baptist Church.

Vanderbilt University - private university founded with ties to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South - but no current religious affiliation.

Southern Methodist University - private university affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

Notre Dame - private university affiliated with the Catholic Church, founded and operated by the Brothers of the Holy Cross

Syracuse University - private university founded with ties to the Methodist Episcopal Church, but no current religious affiliation.

Rice University - private university with no religious affiliation.

Tulane University - private university with no religious affiliation. Only public school to go private.

Duke University - private university with historical ties to the Methodist Episcopal Church. Interestingly, Duke's website compares it's Methodist affiliation to Northwestern, Syracuse, Vanderbilt, and USC? Yet USC does not make any similar claim to religious affilitation. Similar to Wake Forest, Duke has a historical religious connection but is primarily a secular university in its current mission.

So, of 119 universities playing division 1 college football, we can glean the following.

112 are public universities.
Of the 17 private universities
5 have never had any religious affiliation (USC, Miami, Stanford, Rice, Tulane)
5 have historical ties but claim no current religious mission (Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Syracuse, Duke, Wake Forest)
7 universities claim a religious affiliation (TCU, BYU, Tulsa, Boston College, Baylor, ND, SMU)

Of the seven universities in Division 1A football, Notre Dame and Boston College are the only two Catholic institutions and are the only programs in a BCS conference (yes - I know ND is not technically in a conference, but it has its own rules about BCS eligibility). I don't claim to know a great deal about the other five non-catholic schools, but they do not have either the historical success or national following that Notre Dame has achieved. Of these schools, BYU appears to be most similar to ND as a standard carrier for a religious affiliation with a national following. With regards to Boston College, they retain a regional fanbase in comparison with ND. Thus, Notre Dame does hold a unique position with a relatively small peer group for comparison.