The Alabama Crimson Tide and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish have scheduled a home-and-home football series for 2028 and 2029, both schools announced on Thursday.
“This series speaks to Notre Dame’s commitment to play against the best that college football has to offer,” said Notre Dame vice president and James E. Rohr director of athletics Jack Swarbrick. “With the addition of Alabama, 12 different programs that have participated in New Year’s Six bowl games since the inception of the College Football Playoff in 2014-15 have appeared or will appear on Notre Dame’s schedule, including Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Florida State, Ohio State and Michigan State — all of which have earned a berth to the CFP semifinals. College football and our fans benefit when the sport’s best programs play each other. We are thrilled to join Alabama in making sure that continues to happen.”
In the first game of the series, Notre Dame will host Alabama at Notre Dame Stadium on Sept. 2, 2028. The Crimson Tide will then play host to the Fighting Irish at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa on Sept. 1, 2029.
“It doesn’t get more tradition-rich than Alabama and Notre Dame when it comes to college football,” Alabama Director of Athletics Greg Byrne said. “What a great opportunity this is for our program and for our fans to kick off the 2028 and 2029 seasons.”
Alabama and Notre Dame first met in 1973 and the two schools have played seven times overall. The Crimson Tide won the last meeting 42-14 in the BCS National Championship Game to conclude the 2012 season. However, the Fighting Irish still hold a 5-2 edge in the series.
“We are excited to be able to add a home-and-home series with a team like Notre Dame,” Alabama head coach Nick Saban said. “Alabama and Notre Dame represent two of the most storied programs in college football history. What a great opportunity for our team and our fans to be able to witness these teams play in two of the sport’s most iconic venues in Tuscaloosa and South Bend.”
Football Schedules
So, where did all the whiners go that mock SEC scheduling?
Never to fear! They’re near!
This is A+ from both sides, ten years in the making.
Finally! .. of course Nick Saban will either be long retired or 77 years old when the series is played.
It genuinely is the first year that works though. ND has a road opening in 2021 but Alabama has Miami scheduled for that year. ND’s next available date is the 2029 date that got this series, while playing at ND in 2028 just gets it here a little sooner.
This is lining up as Alabama’s first Power 5 true road game since 2011. ‘Bama must think ND will be an FCS school by ’28-29.
Congrats to both Schools!!!! Both being traditional football powers this is the type of match-up I as a College Football Fan would like to see more often. Even if it’s not Bama vs. South Bend State, love to see the match-ups amongst the Power Conferences. Thanks to both Bama and South Bend State in making this happen. (sorry about the usage of South Bend State, but grew not being allowed to say or use the ND school name, so South Bend State has been used in my home for decades)
@David, congrats on one team scheduling a home and home a decade away with what contains what I’m sure is a pretty easy out clause
Bout time. Now fill the years in between now and this series with power 5 home and homes and I’ll be impressed. Seriously, if VaTech can do it through 2030, Alabama should have no problem
Now give us the Texas/Bama series that was rumored to being discussed at the same time. My guess would be 2025 and 2026 if it was going to happen since Texas has a gap between its first and second game in the Michigan series and Bama’s schedule is currently blank those years.
As for all the people who mock SEC scheduling.. hey, this is a first, so good for Bama. I’ll give credit where credit is due. This is a nice scheduling announcement. A home/home with Texas would be as well. But acting like this is anything other than breaking from their norm is disingenuous.
Aaaaaaand, even so, it will be interesting to see the way Bama fills out the rest of this schedule. Even with breaking out of their “no home/home” rule, the pattern suggests the other 3 games will be 1 FCS team and 2 “group of 5” teams. Still a great step forward, but not the same as, say, playing 9 conference games, playing 1 marquee game, playing 1 other power-5 game (also in a home/home), and playing one group of 5 game (with only 1 FCS game in decades) like Texas has been doing recently.
If Bama makes a pattern of this, it will help improve the image of SEC scheduling… and it should just make for more entertaining games for the home fans of both teams.
Was that a FCS team that Bama beat in winning the National Championship?
What’s that have to do with designing an exciting 12 game regular season schedule where the home fans don’t get 3 fluff games every year? We all know, any team can win and game any week. College football is about the week-by-week grind and about the excitement for the fans who show up every week.
This is a site about scheduling. We’re talking about scheduling.
Jeff,
Why are you so concerned & worried about Alabama scheduling? Don’t you have a team of your own? If you want to bring up “an exciting 12 game regular season” you have another thing coming, we will not get that from ANY team in college football, ALL teams schedule a couple of wins & ALL conferences have bottom feeders that make them have easy wins so going 9-game conference is not the answer either.
Glad to see the series is scheduled but I don’t like the time of year the 2028 game in South Bend is. If Alabama and other Southern teams really want to prove they are superior they need to play Northern teams in November in the north. Notre Dame should have insisted the game in South Bend be played the weekend before Thanksgiving when Alabama typically does not play an SEC team.
It would be great to see this game played on grass in the snow and temperatures in the 20s. Lets see how Alabama handles that! Same with the CFB championship game. Once every 5 years it ought to be in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, or Chicago.
Yes conversely you can have Notre Dame a Northern team play Alabama on Labor Day Weekend like they already are in 90+ degree temperatures with high humidity. That weather plays to a Southern team’s advantage, just like playing in November in South Bend would play to a Northern team’s advantage.
David,
Don’t worry, we are still here. Another great move by slick Nick and Co to improve their scheduling image…when Nick doesn’t have to deal with it. All kidding aside, this is improvement for Alabama. I’ll remember in 2028 and 2029 to give them credit for playing a home and home with a Power program but until then, will continue to question their strength of schedule with their annual 3 gimmie’s and a mid-tier power 5 neutral site game, nonconference schedule.
The big ten fans here really think they’re something even after scoring 0 points in 3 straight years of playoffs
DaveMealy517,
I am sure that ND also wanted the game played on Labor Day weekend as well for many reasons. Labor Day weekend is one of the biggest college football weeks there is. If one of them lose, they still may be in the hurt for a championship at the end of the year. Not sure where ND would want to play an ACC team then Bama followed by USC at the end of the season in November, that makes no sense. Also, who are these SEC teams suppose to come up to the north & play actually? I mean, BIG would have to change their in-conference games around just to get an SEC on the schedule so that’s not the SEC fault. They could play a Pitt or Cuse but Cuse plays in a DOME & there is a reason for that. I understand Alabama is in its prime & SEC haters are just looking for a reason for them to lose like playing in snow & 20 degree weather to see if they can handle it.
As for the CFB Championship, there is a reason bowl games are in warm areas like Florida, California & Texas. If Michigan fans have a chose of playing on January 8th in the title game, not sure if they would chose Miami, Fl where it is warm & the can go to Disneyland or would they rather go the Chicago so they can freeze their asses off & hope not to be shot in the process. Cities like Chicago & Cleveland have others issues to deal with then having a CFB in their backyard.
I don’t think the SEC needs to prove anything to anybody, once again, no matter what Bama or SEC does, there is always going to be that person that wants them to PROVE themselves to the world. They have, they win national championships almost every year. When ND comes down to Tuscaloosa in 2029 on a hot, muggy, humility day that feels like it is over 100+, wheather Magic Nick is coaching or not, we will see if they can handle that!
Day,
Kind of an odd jab at Chicago and Cleveland. When was the last time someone was shot going to or from a Bears or Browns game? Don’t always listen to what Fox News is selling you (or cnn for that matter), you end up looking pretty ignorant.
The Other Jeff,
Nice to see that out of all that I said you pick out one (half of sentence) to scorn me on. Honestly I don’t listen to the news FOX nor CNN but you can easily see the facts of Chicago crimes rates if you google it, or may that is incorrect like the news is. As for being ignorant, ABSOLUTELY! I will not disagree with that, most people are ignorant in many ways, like saying a bunch of misleading stuff about the SEC & ACC but I get your point & will tone it down a bit.
SEC: Playing the best in and out of conference and still winning national championships.
Like Ric Flair said: To be the man, you have to beat the man… and for the last 12 years or so, nobody can beat the SEC when it matters.
Joe: Who is your team? And no, the SEC is not a team
Wow, this is the first Home and Home the Tide has scheduled in a really long time. Good Job to both AD’s for scheduling a great game. They have been playing the Season open game neutral site against some pretty good schools but then had 2 Group of 5 and a FCS game all at home. Will Notre Dame be their only Power 5 game those years? probably since they scheduled it for week 1.