The Arkansas Razorbacks and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish have scheduled a home-and-home football series for 2020 and 2025, both schools announced on Thursday.
In the first game of the series, Arkansas will travel to take on Notre Dame at Notre Dame Stadium on Sept. 12, 2020. The Razorbacks will then host the Fighting Irish at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville on Oct. 4, 2025.
Arkansas and Notre Dame have never met on the football field.
“It’s remarkable to think our historic programs have never met, but we are excited that this will change in the near future as we add the University of Notre Dame to our football schedules in 2020 and 2025,” said Arkansas Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Jeff Long. “This series will benefit our football program, our University and the Southeastern Conference, but more importantly it is an opportunity for our football student-athletes to compete against one of college football’s storied programs while providing a premier match-up for our fans. This series will provide a once-in-a-lifetime road trip and another memorable football Saturday at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium.”
Notre Dame is the first announced non-conference opponent for the Arkansas Razorbacks for both the 2020 and 2025 seasons. The Irish also satisfy the SEC’s strength of schedule requirement.
“This two-game series will provide our program with another opportunity to play a top-caliber foe from the Southeastern Conference,” said Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly. “Coach (Bret) Bielema is a tremendous coach and his teams have always played a physical style of football. I know our team and fans will be excited to play the Razorbacks.”
Notre Dame now has 11 games scheduled for the 2020 season. That season, the Fighting Irish are slated to host Stanford, Clemson, Duke, and Louisville and travel to Navy (at East Rutherford, NJ), Purdue, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, USC, and Pittsburgh.
In 2025, Notre Dame is currently scheduled to host Purdue, Texas A&M, Navy, NC State, Syracuse, and USC and travel to Boston College, Miami (FL), and Pittsburgh. Notre Dame needs two more games that season.
Football Schedules
This is a good series for ND. We need to play as many SEC teams as we can.
Will ND ever schedule those promised games with BYU? It’s not looking like it.
This is awesome! This leaves Auburn as about the only major P5 school, certainly the most notable left, that ND has never played.
Auburn/Notre Dame needs to happen. No excuses from either!
Amen! Play or pay already, Irish!
I agree with comments regarding ND-BYU. BYU is a school that tries to have a budget surplus each year from its athletics department so a buyout would likely fund BYU in scheduling a one-and-none with another school. Or taking one less road on-and-none.