Notre Dame – Alabama Series Pushed Back, Irish Avoid ‘Bama-Clemson Double Whammy

Notre Dame has been very aggressive with scheduling future opponents.  The Irish have added series with Florida, Alabama, Texas A&M, Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Arkansas in future years – in addition to their normal obligations – but with those additions, Notre Dame found itself facing the possibility of hosting both Alabama and Clemson in the same year – 2028.  That won’t happen now after the University announced the Alabama series has been pushed back a year and won’t start until 2029. 

With the games pushed back a year, there is a chance that Notre Dame won’t see Nick Saban when the Crimson Tide come to town in 2029 as well.  Saban’s contract was just recently extended through 2028 at which point the legendary head coach will be in his late 70’s.  

While the move was obviously advantageous for Notre Dame, it is equally as advantageous for the Crimson Tide.  Their 2028 out of conference schedule included both Notre Dame and Ohio State prior to announcing that the games would be moved back a year.  

This was a win-win for both programs even though it will make fans wait a year to see the two blue blood programs face off in the regular season.  If Notre Dame continues its resurgence we’ve seen over the last four years, its likely that fans of both programs won’t have to wait until then to see the two titans square off again.  

Notre Dame has been busy moving parts around for its future schedules over recent weeks.  Yesterday the school announced the rescheduling of the Wisconsin game at Lambeau Field and a couple weeks ago they announced the rescheduling of the Arkansas series.  The front end of both games was lost in 2020 because of the scheduling changes that resulted from the pandemic. 

Notre Dame also added futures dates with Army, Central Michigan, and South Florida.  Earlier this year, Notre Dame added the future series with Florida as well.