Last week, Penn State football defeated Boise State 31-14 in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl to punch its ticket to the semifinals of the College Football Playoff. On January 9, the Nittany Lions play in the Orange Bowl in Miami. Their opponent? A once-familiar foe in Notre Dame.

Penn State and Notre Dame have a storied football history that spans back to their first meeting in 1913 when the Fighting Irish captured a 14-7 road win. Overall, the teams have met 19 times and hold a 9-9-1 record, featuring a tie in 1925.

The bulk of the rivalry comes between the years 1981 and 1992 when the teams met annually in November. The most memorable of these meetings was during the 1992 season in the iconic “Snow Bowl” game.

It was a snowy day in South Bend, Indiana as the No. 22-ranked Nittany Lions faced the No. 8 Fighting Irish. The conditions were so cold that the previous plan to film a scene for the 1993 film “Rudy” was canceled at halftime.

Despite the film’s cancellation, the game still played out straight from a Hollywood script. Down 16-9 in the fourth quarter after a rushing touchdown from Penn State quarterback Kerry Collins, Notre Dame quarterback Rick Mirer led the team down the field before throwing a touchdown pass to Hall of Fame running back Jerome Bettis with under 30 seconds left.

Down by one point and no overtime implemented in college football at that time, Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz decided to go for two. Mirer completed the conversion to star running back Reggie Brooks, an unlikely hero considering Brooks only caught two passes in his four years at the school.

The Fighting Irish won by a score of 17-16 in a game that lives on forever in Notre Dame history. However, the Snow Bowl marks an important bookmark in the Penn State-Notre Dame rivalry.

In the 1980s, Penn State and Notre Dame were both independent schools, making their yearly matchups an honored tradition. However, after the 1992 season, Penn State moved to the Big Ten.

It took 14 years for the two teams to play again in a home-and-home series in 2006 and 2007. In the first meeting, the Fighting Irish demolished Penn State in a 41-17 rout. This set the stage for a return matchup in State College the next year, which was the start of one of the biggest spectacles in college football.

On September 8, 2007, Penn State beat Notre Dame 31-10 in the very first full-stadium White Out game. In the 18 years following, the White Out game has become an integral Penn State football tradition and a premiere event in college football. Therefore, it was only fitting the opponent for such a monumental game was the school Penn State had made so many memories with all those years ago.

It’s been nearly 20 years since the two teams have met and this semifinal matchup on January 9 appears to have the highest stakes yet. However, the stakes go far beyond a spot in the national championship game or a chance to hoist the Orange Bowl trophy.

On January 9, one of college football’s biggest rivalries will be reignited in ways that were never thought possible in the 1980s and early 90s. In the Orange Bowl, two of the most storied schools in college football get to make history together one more time.

So, for the 20th time and only the third time since 2000, it’s time to say: Beat the Irish!