Notre Dame and Temple Reschedule 2014 Game

Notre Dame and Temple will face off for the first time ever on August 31 and the two schools were set to meet again next year in Philadelphia.  That trip to the city of Brotherly Love for the Irish will have to wait a year according to various reports that the game has been rescheduled for 2015.

While the Irish and Owls will still kick off the 2013 Notre Dame football schedule this August, Notre Dame needed to move two games off its 2014 schedule due to its obligation to play 5 ACC opponents a season starting next year.  Notre Dame had previously tried to cancel it’s 2014 trip to Tempe to play Arizona State, but that didn’t work out when the Sun Devils would not let the Irish out of the contract.

Even with the Temple game moved to 2015, Notre Dame will still need to reschedule or cancel another game from next year’s schedule with 13 games currently scheduled – one more than is allowed by NCAA rules.

Of the 13 games still on the schedule for next year, the one ones that it would appear Notre Dame could potentially move are Rice and Northwestern.  Notre Dame’s isn’t going to touch it’s games against USC, Michigan (the last in the series), Purdue, Stanford or Navy and already has five ACC opponents scheduled with Syracuse, Louisville, Florida State, North Carolina, and Wake Forest so those are going anywhere either.

We know the Arizona State game isn’t getting moved either so that just Rice or Northwestern.  With the Rice game scheduled for August 30 as a nice tune up game before the Irish host the Wolverines for the final time, logic suggests that Notre Dame would want to move the Northwestern game if they could.

Notre Dame’s deal with Northwestern calls for the Irish to travel to Evanston, Illinois as part of a home and home in 2018.  Perhaps the Wildcats would be more open to moving the game as long as it occurs prior to the 2018 return trip?  Notre Dame and Rice are scheduled to play just one game – next year’s at Notre Dame Stadium.

Jack Swarbrick still has some time to figure things out with regards to next year’s schedule, but things appear to be shaping up for the 2014.  However it ends up working out, Notre Dame will have 7 home games and 5 away games as both the Northwestern and Rice games are to take place in Notre Dame Stadium.

With the road game at Temple moving to 2015, the Irish schedule for 2015 will require a bit of tinkering now as well with 13 games currently scheduled.  The five ACC opponents for 2015 include Boston College and Georgia Tech at home and Clemson, Virginia, and Pitt on the road.  Notre Dame will also host Texas, UMass, Navy, and USC in 2015 with road games to Stanford and Purdue scheduled as well.