For the first time in over a decade, and thanks to a deal reached last year between the football independent and its conference home for most other sports, Florida State and Notre Dame will reportedly square off during the regular season.
Warchant.com, citing multiple sources, is reporting that the Seminoles will play host to the Irish in Tallahassee on an undetermined date during the 2014 season. The game would be part of Notre Dame’s scheduling agreement with the ACC, which was announced last year as five games annually against conference members.
The Irish already have games scheduled against Pittsburgh and Syracuse in 2014, the first year of the football arrangement with the ACC. The other two ACC opponents for Notre Dame in 2014 have not been released.
While the date of the, uh, date with the Irish is not yet known, the Rivals.com website writes “that FSU and the ACC are clearing the deck to play the game early in the season.”
Notre Dame and Florida State have met seven times over the past 20-plus years, with the latter holding a 5-2 edge in the series. One of those losses for the ‘Noles, however, was the epic 1993 game; with the Seminoles ranked No. 1 and the Irish No. 2, Notre Dame claimed a 31-24 mid-November win in South Bend. FSU, though, still went on to win the national championship that season thanks to ND’s loss to Boston College the following week and their own two-point win over Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.
The last time the two faced each other in football during the regular season was 2003, a 37-0 FSU win. The last actual meeting, regular season or otherwise, was in the Champs Sports Bowl following the 2011 season, again a win (18-14) for the Seminoles.
(Photo credit: Notre Dame athletics)