After the initial news broke about a three game series back in May, Notre Dame and Miami have agreed to renew one of college football’s fiercest rivalries, with the opening salvo coming in 2012 at Soldier Field in Chicago.
The Irish and Hurricanes will play at Soldier Field on October 6, 2012, the first time the two schools have faced each other since 1990. They’ll follow up with a home-and-home series in 2016 and 2017, with the 2016 date played on October 8th in South Bend and the 2017 game played Thanksgiving weekend on November 25th.
If you’re looking at a future schedule you want to get excited for, here’s a quick look at the preliminary slate for 2012, thanks to the band formerly known as Blue-Gray Sky:
2012 Schedule (Home games in CAPS)
Sept 1 -- Navy (in Dublin, Ireland)
Sept 8 -- PURDUE
Sept 15 -- Michigan State
Sept 22 -- MICHIGAN
Sept 29 -- Open
Oct 6 -- Miami (at Solider Field)
Oct 13 -- Open (Could be Boston College)
Oct 20 -- PITTSBURGH
Oct 27 -- Oklahoma
Nov 3 -- Open (Likely week off)
Nov 10 -- Open (Could be Boston College)
Nov 17 -- WAKE FOREST
Nov 24 -- Southern Cal
I think Phil Steele’s head is going to explode when he tries to compute that strength of schedule, especially when you consider Boston College is on the schedule, just not locked into one of the open dates yet.
Whether it’s the incredible trip to Dublin for the opener, Soldier Field against Miami and a date in Norman with Oklahoma, those are three book-it-now destination games for any hard-core Irish fan. (Not to mentioned Notre Dame writer...) With traditional opponents like Michigan, MSU, Pitt and USC, not to mention another interesting match-up with Wake Forest, Notre Dame could schedule Penn and St. Joe’s High in South Bend, and I still think they’d have a harder schedule than just about every team in the Big Ten.