Notre Dame is getting closer to filling out its 2022 schedule after announcing with Cal on Monday that the Golden Bears will travel to South Bend in 2022 for a one-game series in Notre Dame Stadium on September 17, 2022. It will be the first meeting between the schools since 1967.
The financial details of the deal between the schools are fascinating, with Notre Dame paying Cal $1.9 million for making the trip from the west coast to Indiana for the early season matchup. Cal, likely motivated by the $1.9 million and opportunity to play in Notre Dame Stadium, had to move a game against UNLV to accommodate the scheduling.
The payout for Cal is more than some other recent payouts for one game agreements with schools like Marshall ($1.25 million also in 2022) and Cincinnati ($1.2 million in 2021).
Mark your calendars 📆
We’re headed to South Bend! pic.twitter.com/kSOV1YjKog
— Cal Football (@CalFootball) January 27, 2020
While the game will be the first meeting between the schools since 1967, it will be the fourth meeting overall. Notre Dame has won all four prior meetings. In the most recent meeting in 1967, #1 ranked Notre Dame beat Cal 41-8 at Notre Dame Stadium under Ara Parseghian. Ara led the Irish to a 48-6 victory at Cal the year before as well. In a very random bit of trivia, Joe Kuharich led the Irish to a win over the Marv Levy coached Bears in 1960. Levy would later go on to coach the Buffalo Bills to four straight Super Bowl losses in the late ’80s/early ’90s.
With Cal added to the 2022 slate, the Irish have just two more open spots to fill. Notre Dame hosts Marshall, Navy, Clemson, Stanford, and Boston College in addition to Cal while traveling to Ohio State, USC, North Carolina, and Syracuse.
Depending on how things shake out here the next two seasons, that could be a rather daunting schedule with Ohio State and Clemson not showing any signs of slowing down. By then, USC will likely have a new head coach and perhaps one that will make USC more of a problem than they have been under Clay Helton. Cal and North Carolina are also both programs that have been improving in recent years.
Of course, a lot can change in two years, and schedules have a way of evening out by the time the games roll around.
So many errors in this article…
“While the game will be the first meeting between the schools since 1967, it will be the fourth meeting overall.” Notre Dame has won all four prior meetings.” So the 2022 game is the fourth meeting overall but somehow we have won four prior meetings.
“Levy would later go on to coach the Buffalo Bills to four straight Super Bowl losses in the late ’80s/early ’90s.” Some fact check might help you…Bills lost 4 straight Super Bowls in the 90’s (1990-1993).
God we have a weaker schedule then Alabama. Can we at least put someone on the schdule worth watching
Clemson, USC, and Ohio State in the same year is weak? Did you bother to look at the actual schedule or just blindly complain when you saw “Cal” in the headline?
Yep pretty safe to say there will be no playoffs in 2022
It’s always dangerous to predict how tough a schedule will be more than a year or two in advance. We thought this past season would be tough but a lot of our opponents underperformed.
But 2022 Clemson might be in a downward spiral (I know, doubtful…but it does happen) and Cal may be a top 10 team. Look at Temple a few years back. We happened to play them in a year they were a top 25 team. No one expected that when they were scheduled.
It’s why I usually don’t bother looking too closely at schedules more than a year from now.
Rick – how many non-SEC teams have a STRONGER schedule than BAMA, or Tennessee, or LSU, or Georgia, or Texas A&M, or Auburn, or South Carolina, or Florida, etc? There are about 110 to chooses from – I wondered if you could list a few. Thank you.
BGC ’77 ’82