Notre Dame continued to add marquee opponents to its future schedules on Thursday by announcing a home and home series with Texas A&M in 2024 and 2025 giving the Irish another SEC opponent they had been seeking.
“These two contests between Notre Dame and Texas A&M figure to be excellent intersectional attractions,” said Notre Dame vice president and athletics director Jack Swarbrick in a press release earlier today. “We had set a goal of adding representation from the Southeastern Conference to our future schedules, and we’ve accomplished that with the addition of this series, as well as the one with Georgia.”
For Swarbrick, it’s another feather in has scheduling cap that has seen him work out games with Georgia and Ohio State this off-season.
Notre Dame and Texas A&M have played each other five times over the years but only twice in the regular season. Three Notre Dame – Texas A&M contests have come in bowl games with the Aggies beating the Irish in the 1987 Cotton Bowl in Tim Brown’s last game in a Notre Dame uniform. The two programs met again in the Cotton Bowl in both the 1992 and 1993 seasons with the Irish winning both contests.
The Irish and Aggies split a home and home series in 2000 and 2001. Notre Dame won the 2000 contest at home before being embarrassed by A&M in their only trip ever to College Station during Bob Davie’s final season as the head coach of the Fighting Irish.
When asked about the home and home series after practice on Thursday, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly joked that, “I’ll be sipping a Mai Tai on the beach.” Apparently Kelly, currently 52, doesn’t plan on coaching too far into his 60’s.
Notre Dame, Texas Cancel Two Games
While Notre Dame announced that addition of Texas A&M tot he 2024 and 2025 schedules on Thursday, news also circulated that Notre Dame and Texas have agreed to cancel their 2019 and 2020 games that were part of a four game series that officially kicks off next year. The two programs are still scheduled to play in 2015 and 2016 and Notre Dame will reportedly pay a $150,000 cancelation fee to Texas.
The two items are also reportedly not related but are rather more likely a result of Notre Dame needing some more scheduling flexibility in 2018 and 2019 to fit in the 5 ACC games a year that they have agreed to play as part of their partial membership in the conference.
With only one trip to Austin now on Notre Dame’s future schedules, start looking into your travel accommodations for 2016 now as that is a road trip you are not going to want to miss.
