Dec. 20, 2013
Jack Swarbrick Press Conference Transcript | Notre Dame Schedule Notes | 2014 Schedule | 2015 Schedule | 2016 Schedule
The University of Notre Dame today announced its football schedules for 2014, 2015 and 2016 – the first three years of its new football relationship with the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Those three seasons are the initial ones in which the Irish play five games per year against ACC opponents, with Notre Dame also in 2014 beginning its affiliation in the ACC postseason bowl alignment.
A slight variation in the first two seasons will have Notre Dame playing four ACC foes in 2014, then six in 2015.
Those next three seasons, combined with the 2012 and 2013 schedules, show the Irish playing games in 10 of the top 12 metropolitan television markets in the country – New York (two games), Los Angeles (three), Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose (two), Boston, Washington, D.C., Detroit and Phoenix. Notre Dame also played in Dublin, Ireland, in 2012.
In addition, those five years include 29 combined regular-season games against 13 different teams that ranked in the Bowl Championship Series poll at some point in 2013 – five each versus Stanford and USC, three versus Michigan and Michigan State, two each versus Oklahoma, Texas, Miami and Arizona State, plus one each versus Florida State, Clemson, Duke, Virginia Tech and Louisville.
“Our schedules the next three seasons, combined with our 2012 and 2013 schedules, truly exhibit Notre Dame’s intention to celebrate our independence,” says Notre Dame vice president and director of athletics Jack Swarbrick.
“We will be playing in virtually every corner of the country and will have a strength of schedule that will serve us well in the new College Football Playoff format.”
The Irish will play their annual Shamrock Series games in 2014 in Indianapolis (Lucas Oil Stadium) against Purdue, in 2015 in Boston (Fenway Park) against Boston College and in 2016 in San Antonio (Alamodome) against Army. All three of those games will be televised in prime time by NBC.
ACC programs headed to Notre Dame Stadium include North Carolina and Louisville in 2014; Wake Forest and Georgia Tech in 2015, and then Duke, Miami and Virginia Tech in 2016.
The Irish normally will play an alternating list of ACC opponents – with three games at home and two on the road one year, followed by three on the road and two at home the next season.
Notre Dame’s game against Virginia Tech in 2016 will mark the first time those two programs have met – and the 2016 Irish matchup at North Carolina State will qualify as the first regular-season meeting between those two programs (their only previous matchup was in the Gator Bowl after the 2002 season). Notre Dame’s visit to Charlottesville, Va., to play Virginia in 2015 will mark its first (the only previous meeting between those teams came in Giants Stadium in the 1989 Kickoff Classic).
Future Irish road schedules send Notre Dame to play away from home against two 2013 final BSC top-12 opponents – at Florida State (final BCS #1) in 2014 in Tallahassee, Fla., and at Clemson (BCS #12) in 2015 in Clemson, S.C.
In addition, in 2015 the Irish begin a four-game series with traditional power Texas – with the first game set for the 2015 Notre Dame season opener in Notre Dame Stadium and the second as the 2016 Irish season opener in Austin.
Notre Dame also will play host to Northwestern in 2014 at Notre Dame Stadium, in the Wildcats’ first visit to South Bend since 1995.
The Irish in both 2014 and 2016 will play ACC foe Syracuse at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
The 2014 Irish home game against Michigan will be a night game and will be televised in prime time by NBC.
University of Notre Dame Football Schedules
2014
Aug. 30 RICE
Sept. 6 MICHIGAN (night)
Sept. 13 * Purdue at Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, Ind. (night)
Sept. 27 at Syracuse (MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.)
Oct. 4 STANFORD
Oct. 11 NORTH CAROLINA
Oct. 18 at Florida State
Nov. 1 vs. Navy (FedEx Field, Landover, Md.)
Nov. 8 at Arizona State
Nov. 15 NORTHWESTERN
Nov. 22 LOUISVILLE
Nov. 29 at USC
* Shamrock Series game
2015
Sept. 5 TEXAS
Sept. 12 at Virginia
Sept. 19 GEORGIA TECH
Sept. 26 MASSACHUSETTS
Oct. 3 at Clemson
Oct. 10 NAVY
Oct. 17 USC
Oct. 31 at Temple (Lincoln Financial Services Field)
Nov. 7 at Pittsburgh
Nov. 14 WAKE FOREST
Nov. 21 * Boston College at Fenway Park, Boston, Mass. (night)
Nov. 28 at Stanford
* Shamrock Series game
2016
Sept. 3 at Texas
Sept. 10 NEVADA
Sept. 17 MICHIGAN STATE
Sept. 24 DUKE
Oct. 1 at Syracuse (MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.)
Oct. 8 at North Carolina State
Oct. 15 STANFORD
Oct. 29 MIAMI
Nov. 5 vs. Navy (site TBD)
Nov. 12 * Army at Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas (night)
Nov. 19 VIRGINIA TECH
Nov. 26 at USC
* Shamrock Series game