Well, so much for those good vibes from earlier today.
This afternoon, Georgia and Notre Dame announced a home-and-home series that would see the Bulldogs travel to South Bend in 2017 and the Irish would head to Athens in 2019. The series between the two iconic football programs was widely praised and applauded in all corners, in part because it will mark the first time UGA will play north of the Mason-Dixon Line since 1965.
Unfortunately, though, there could be a price to pay.
Notre Dame had previously scheduled games against Texas in, you guessed it, 2017 and 2019 (those had originally been scheduled for 2019 and 2020 before it was apparently changed). According to a tweet from ESPN.com‘s Brett McMurphy, that series is in jeopardy because of the UGA series.
“Hopeful we will be able to reschedule,” Irish athletic director Jack Swarbrick told McMurphy.
According to the outstanding website FBScedules.com, UT has 2017 games scheduled against Maryland, UCF and USC; with a nine-game conference schedule, it’s unclear why the Longhorns would move a game against the Irish to that year. And it’s really unclear why, if McMurphy’s report is accurate, the moving of the ND-UT series to earlier years hasn’t been announced.
In addition to the Georgia game, Notre Dame also has games against Michigan State, USC, North Carolina State, Boston College, Louisville and Stanford on its 2017 schedule.
The Irish and Longhorns are also slated to tangle in 2015 and 2016; those games are in no way in jeopardy.