Notre Dame Versus The Power Five Conferences
When the University of Arkansas is able to visit Notre Dame Stadium — hopefully — for the Sept. 12 Fighting Irish home opener, that means among the 64 Power Five conference schools (not including football independent Notre Dame as the 65th), 58 will have been played.
That is a primary reason why football independence by the school is so cherished — the freedom to schedule and play anyone, albeit on agreeable terms with time and place.
Three of the five Power Five conferences have seen every member face Notre Dame.
• As a partial football member of the ACC since 2014, Notre Dame has faced all 14 current league members either at home or on the road. Many were achieved even prior to joining the ACC for the 2013-14 academic calendar (although the scheduled visit by Clemson this Nov. 7 will be the first at home since 1979).
• All current 14 Big Ten members have been played — although Maryland was in the ACC for both meetings on neutral sites in 2002 and 2011.
Easily the longest span of not playing one of the Big Ten members is with the University of Minnesota, with the most recent meeting occurring in 1938.
• All 12 representatives in the Pac-12 have been faced. The only two not to host Notre Dame in a home game are Utah and Washington State.
The three missing from the Big 12 — which actually has only 10 schools — are Kansas State, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech.
The likelihood of playing any of the three would be remote, although not out of the question for a Shamrock Series top of game at an NFL venue such as Kansas City, St. Louis or Dallas. But with current economics the way they are in college athletic departments with the coronavirus attack, those kind of matchups might become obsolete.
The two marquee programs in the Big 12 — Oklahoma and Texas — generally would be the most likely targets with fan appeal. There was a home-and-home with the Sooners in 2012-13 and Texas in 2015-16.
The Fighting Irish also have never played TCU and Baylor on the road.
There are still four teams to play in the 14-team SEC: Arkansas —slated to visit Sept. 12 — Auburn, Kentucky and Mississippi State. (There also has never been a home-and-home regular season meeting scheduled with Florida, although the Irish did defeat the No. 3-ranked Gators in the 1992 Sugar Bowl in their lone encounter.)
The most surprising is Kentucky because it is a neighboring state and it has been often scheduled as a men’s basketball rival (including the next three seasons). Until last year’s opener at Louisville, Notre Dame had never even played a football game in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Auburn could be an appealing matchup because over the past decade both programs have had wild ebbs and flows. The Tigers won the national title in 2010 and played for it again in 2013 — yet in between had a 3-9 finish.
Similarly, the Irish played for the title in 2012 and made the four-team playoff in 2018, and also in between had a 4-8 outcome among other setbacks.
Yet if Notre Dame is going to play anyone from Alabama, it more likely would be the Crimson Tide. The two will have their first home and home meetings in 2028 and 2029 since 1986-87.
An emphasis has been put on playing SEC teams regularly, including Georgia in 2017 and 2019, Arkansas in 2020-25 and Texas A&M in 2024-25.
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