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Auburn, Notre Dame schedule football series for 2027, 2028

By Kevin Kelley - November 5, 2025
Auburn Tigers

Photo: John Reed-Imagn Images

The Auburn Tigers and Notre Dame Fighting Irish have agreed to a home-and-home football series for the 2027 and 2028 seasons, both schools announced Wednesday. News of the Auburn-Notre Dame series was first reported by Pete Thamel of ESPN earlier this afternoon.

The two-game series will begin with Notre Dame hosting Auburn at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Ind., on Sept. 25, 2027. The series will conclude when the Tigers host the Fighting Irish at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala., on Oct. 28, 2028.

Auburn, a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), and Notre Dame, a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Independent, have never squared off on the gridiron.

The addition of Notre Dame to Auburn’s schedule in 2027 and 2028 satisfies the SEC’s non-conference requirement, which stipulates that each league member must play at least one non-conference opponent from a power conference or Notre Dame each season.

In 2027, Auburn is already scheduled to host the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders on Sept. 11 and the Missouri State Bears on Sept. 18. The following season, the Tigers are slated to host the North Alabama Lions on Sept. 9.

Notre Dame, which has to secure a 12-game schedule each season, is now up to nine games in 2027 and 10 in 2028 with the addition of the Auburn series. The Irish’s 2027 schedule also includes home tilts against Purdue, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, and Navy, with road trips slated against Michigan State, Wake Forest (in Charlotte, NC), Clemson, and Duke.

In 2028, Notre Dame is scheduled to host Texas, Arkansas, Clemson, Boston College, and Miami and travel to Purdue, Virginia Tech, Navy, and Pitt.

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View Comments (31)

Comments (31)

Notre Dame-Auburn is a fun series. Glad to see the first-ever matchup. But this does mean Notre Dame has five road games scheduled for 2028: Purdue, Auburn, Virginia Tech, Navy, and Pitt. Notre Dame’s tv deal with NBC requires them to provide seven games for broadcast, so that leaves no room to play USC. Unless something changes, that historic series will end.

Under the normal rotation, Notre Dame would play at USC in 2028. The Auburn game gives them five road games in 2028, which given their requirement to play seven designated home games in their NBC contract, would seem to indicate that the Notre Dame-USC series is ending.

Looks like Notre Dame is the one who ended it. Surprise surprise. After all that propaganda from ND and national media saying USC is trying to cancel it, ND is the one who does it.

USC is the issue not ND. They will not schedule home and away till they know the B10 gets 4 teams in the playoffs. There are dates set for the next 2 years if USC says yes. The offer USC made is opening rotatation. BUt, there are no dates open for that.

Great pair of games between two schools which have never met before. Looking forward to seeing these two play.

Can you PLEASE Z-Man layoff on your ideas on Thanksgiving weekend CFB games.

Let schedule maker decide when Notre Dame-Auburn is to be play.

Welcome back, Dan Rakow.

I feel like we haven’t heard from you in weeks!

Have a blessed evening — and weekend.

God bless & thank you very much Jesper greatly appreciate it buddy.

I only wish Z-Man would start accepting proposals CFB have & Cuckoo ideas must PLEASE come to a STOP.

Notre Dame’s administration refusing to schedule USC is cowardly. That game is one of the classic rivalries that should be played every year. Put USC back on the schedule!

Paraphrasing the maestro himself, Kevin Kelley, what’s your evidence, John, that ND’s administration is refusing to schedule USC? From my vantage point, it looks to me like Jenny-Jen-Jen is the one playing hard-to-get.

Jesper, my evidence is that USC has schedule openings every year going forward, while the coward Pete Bevecqua has scheduled games to block the USC series from continuing.

You’re evidence can be refuted by saying USC told Notre Dame they didn’t want to play anymore, so then ND started scheduling other games. We need more info than that.

Well, at least on a publicly-disclosed basis, I’m aware of only five games that Bevacqua has scheduled since taking the seat (home-&-homes against Texas and Auburn and a buy-game next September against Rice on six days’ rest following a Sunday night opener).

Perhaps you could also say he’s been involved in an SMU home game that has landed on the schedule for next season, though that looks to me to be part of ND’s scheduling arrangement with the ACC — and there isn’t yet a date attached to that game with the Ponies.

It’s really hard for me to see how Bevacqua is boxing out USC with these games he’s added. And, quite honestly, he can’t wait for Godot to schedule attractive games if Jenny-Jen-Jen is playing hard-to-get and expecting him to send her floral arrangements.

Kudos to Auburn for scheduling ND. Given that they are one of the SEC schools not tied to an annual instate rivalry game with an ACC opponent, it is good to see that they challenged themselves instead of paying someone like Boston College or Wake Forest to play a one off at Jordan-Hare.

Crazy how ND and Auburn have never crossed paths is all these years. Looks like this will leave only five P4 opponents that ND will not have played: Kentucky, Mississippi State, Kansas State, Texas Tech and UCF.

Understood. Still could have played one another. UConn and UMass have only been at the FBS level for a couple decades, and they have both played ND.

Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua seemed to go out of his way to mention Texas Tech during his recent 18-minute interview with Dan Patrick (mid-October).

Leads me to believe the Irish will soon be tossin’ tortillas with the Red Raiders.

They could have played in a bowl game back in the 90s believe it was the independence bowl but Notre Dame thought they were to go to that bowl game. Look it up it’s out there somewhere. More proof of Notre Dame arrogance. Keep dreaming of 1988, because your nothing more than cub fans

Cubs-Brewers Best rivalry in big league Baseball however I do not say that it’s better than Red Sox-Yankees although Baseball is still popular on East Coast.

Spreading bile again, Illininoles97. You’re correct that ND passed on an opportunity to play Auburn in the ‘96 Independence Bowl, as the Irish were undergoing a coaching transition (Holtz to Davie). ND manifestly didn’t think it was too good for the Independence Bowl. It had previously played in the Liberty and Aloha Bowls and did whack weeds the following season (against LSU).

What’s your deal with Notre Dame? Did you apply and get the Risky Business treatment?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzN2z6MM_G4

I pardon Notre Dame for what happen 30 years & I understand coaching transition that took place at the time.