Notre Dame Announces Series with Ohio State

Notre Dame - Ohio State
(Photo: John Green / Icon Sportswire)

We are just over to days away from kick-off of the last scheduled Notre Dame – Michigan game and the Irish may have already taken their first shot at the Wolverines  Earlier on Thursday Notre Dame announced a home and home series with Michigan’s arch rival, Ohio State, in 2022 and 2023.  Interesting timing huh?

When Notre Dame opted out of the Michigan series it was seen as an unavoidable casualty of Notre Dame’s agreement to play 5 ACC teams every year once all other Fighting Irish programs became full fledged members of the conference.  Since then, however, Notre Dame has announced several series with big time programs such as Texas, Georgia, and now Ohio State.

Earlier this week Brian Kelly was very guarded in his comments on the ending of the Notre Dame – Michgian series earlier this week.

“Given the complexities of our schedule, in not being able to play Michigan, it opens up so many more exciting opportunities for us,” Kelly told the media on Tuesday. He added, “The Texas opportunity, Georgia, so, look, we understand the great tradition and the rivalry of the Michigan game, and if it could have worked, it would have worked, but it does open up some pretty exciting games in the future.”

Given how much goes into scheduling a home and home with a marquee opponent like Ohio State, Brian Kelly clearly knew that this announcement was coming later this week.

Notre Dame and Ohio State have only played each other five times with the Buckeyes winning each of the last three contests in the series – most recently in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl.   The two games Notre Dame won in the series came in 1935 and 1936 so it’s been almost 80 years since the Irish have gotten the better of the Buckeyes.  They’ll have to wait eight more years to taste victory over them, but they’ll have two chances to get some revenge on the Buckeyes.

Credit Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick once again.  Not only did Savvy Jack add another marquee game to a future schedule for Notre Dame but he also announced it two days before playing the last game with that opponent’s arch rival.  Here’s what Notre Dame’s AD had to say via the official press release:

“I am excited we are able once again to bring these two programs together on the football field,” says Notre Dame vice president and athletics director Jack Swarbrick. “Football games between Notre Dame and Ohio State make great sense from a strength-of-schedule standpoint. In addition, with (Ohio State athletics director) Gene Smith having both played and coached football at Notre Dame–and with (Ohio State head coach) Urban Meyer having served as an assistant football coach at Notre Dame–there are some obvious, high-profile connections between our two institutions.”

Like many things Swarbrick has done scheduling wise, it is hard to find something to not like about this from a Notre Dame’s perspective.

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15 Comments

  1. I agree that Jack Swarbrick has done many great things as ND’s Athletic Director. But why on earth would he schedule UMass? The idea that we should schedule schools that employ our former assistants as their current head coach makes zero sense to me. Am I missing something?

  2. Interesting about the Ohio State Game. On the official site they talk about playing Urban Meyer’s team, and they reference his history with ND. The only thing is by 2022 it’s very possible Meyer may be gone. It’s almost worthless to compare the 2 teams today with how they will look in 8 year.

    It’ll be a great series, but comparisons at this point probably are futile.

    I still hope they schedule home-home series with Michigan on some semi-regular basis. They don’t have to play every year, but they should at least get some rotation in and out going. They usually turn out to be great games.

  3. I am no Michigan fan, but OSU is a bunch of a$$holes. Urban Myer is a slime ball. That is the one game every year that I root for Michigan.

    Go IRISH,
    WOoDy

      1. It sure does. He’s a cheater too.

        Also, it is great for Jack to schedule all these powerhouse teams, but the real challenge is to win the games. So far, that is not happening. I hope this changes, but with our academic standards being enforced, consider me a little skeptical.

        I hope we turn the corner this season. A nice start would be a win over UM.

        Go IRISH,
        Woody

      2. You from Ohio or something?

        I am an ND grad. I don’t put all Domers on a pedestal. The Ohio State program lacks integrity. What does that say about their AD?

        The reason these big games are scheduled is because of the money. Otherwise, it makes no sense to have a schedule as difficult as ours is this year.

        Does that help?

        Woody

        PS One of the weakest counter arguments you can make is an ad hominem attack….pathetic.

      3. Just to clarify do ad hominem attacks include calling a school a bunch of assholes, Urban Myer a slime ball and an AD a cheater.

        I could care less if you built ND with your bare hands let alone cheated your way to a humanities degree there.

      4. Have you been to a game in Columbus? They are a bunch of a$$holes.

        Myer is a known slime ball. AD runs a program that has numerous NCAA infractions.

        Yep, that’s all true.

        And I hope UM crushes them!

  4. Say what you want. I am a huge IRISH FAN. I will really miss the Michigan Game. I would rather play UM than OSU any day. I understand it…. but it is a shame.

  5. There are some intriguing games upcoming. The series with Texas, Georgia and Ohio State as part of a three-legged stool with the ACC rotation (it’s going to be odd in years when we draw neither Florida State nor Miami) and with the USC/Stanford rotating California series adds some spice. Then we’ll always have the Shamrock Series…

    Not sure that the fan base has yet internalized the consequences of the ACC rotation, but probably will in 2015 when road games at Virginia and Clemson are two of our first five.

    There is an interesting recruiting angle. For example we can tell 2015 recruits that they will play USC, Stanford, Texas and Georgia in their careers. That’s not bad.

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