Notre Dame Football Adds Home-and-Home Series With Nebraska for 2032 and 2033

Notre Dame and Nebraska are going to play football again. A two-game series made official Wednesday sends the Irish to Memorial Stadium on October 30, 2032, with the Huskers making the return trip to Notre Dame Stadium on October 29, 2033. By the time the 2032 game kicks off, 31 years will have passed since these programs last met.

Nebraska holds an 8-7-1 edge overall and has taken three straight in the series. South Bend has been kinder to the Irish, who are 3-1 when the Huskers visit. Notre Dame led the series until the 2000 loss tied it, and the 2001 result flipped the lead to Nebraska. Two wins in this series would put the Irish back on top. Anything less leaves them trailing.

A Series That Has Been Gone a Long Time

The most recent pair of games came in 2000 and 2001, and Nebraska won both. The 2000 game is the one Irish fans still bring up. The top-ranked Huskers brought something like 30,000 fans with them, turning whole sections of Notre Dame Stadium red, and they needed overtime to get out of town with a 27-24 win after the Irish pushed them harder than most expected. A year later in Lincoln, Nebraska controlled things and won 27-10.

The meeting before those two had come nearly three decades earlier. Nebraska beat Notre Dame 40-6 in the Orange Bowl on January 1, 1973, to cap the 1972 season in what was the last game that Bob Devaney coached for the Huskers.

Nebraska was a regular opponent in the early years of the program. From 1915 through 1925, the two teams played 11 years in a row, with each side winning five times and one game ending in a tie.

Plenty of Early History

For Knute Rockne’s early-1920s teams, Nebraska was the problem nobody else could be. The Huskers were the only team to beat Notre Dame in 1922, and they did it again in 1923. The Irish evened the score in 1924 with a 34-6 win at Cartier Field during their national championship season. Nebraska then closed out that stretch with a 17-0 win in Lincoln in 1925.

The schools met twice more after World War II, and Notre Dame won both, 31-0 at home in 1947 and 44-13 in Lincoln in 1948.

It’s a little strange that two programs with this much history have played only twice since the Truman administration. Only three programs have won more games than Notre Dame, which sits at 974 victories, while Nebraska checks in eighth on that list at 933. Nebraska isn’t the power it was in the 1990s, but a late-October trip to a sold-out Memorial Stadium still means something.

What the Matchup Adds to Future Schedules

Nebraska joins a 2032 schedule that was already a lot. Clemson, Florida State, Louisville, Wake Forest, and Georgia Tech are all due in South Bend that fall, and the Irish also have to go to Florida, Miami, Navy, and USC. In 2033, Notre Dame welcomes Virginia Tech, Pitt, and USC, and heads out to Michigan, Duke, Clemson, Boston College, and Louisville.

This is also one more big-name opponent in a stack of them. Over the next several seasons, Notre Dame is set to face Alabama, Auburn, BYU, Clemson, Louisville, Miami, SMU, Texas, and USC.

Six years is a long time to wait. Still, after three straight losses to Nebraska, the Irish finally get two shots at fixing that, and a chance to take the series back.

For every result in the series, see Notre Dame vs. Nebraska: all 16 meetings.