The future football series between the BYU Cougars and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish has been trimmed down to just one game, BYU athletics director Tom Holmoe revealed in January.
Back in 2010, BYU and Notre Dame agreed to a six-game football series. The series was essentially two two-for-one’s that included four games in South Bend and two games in Provo.
However, primarily due to Notre Dame agreeing to play five ACC games per year, the Cougars and Irish have only played two of the six games, and both were in South Bend (2012 and 2013).
At his semi-annual roundtable discussion with reporters, Tom Holmoe stated that the second two-for-one series is “off the table” and that he will be “patient” for the Irish to return the game that is owed. Below is the full text of Holmoe’s statement via The Daily Universe:
“It’s dormant. They made a decision to schedule over our remaining game, and we’ll see how that goes. We have contract protections. Notre Dame is a great university and our fans love that game. So I’ll be a little more patient to see if we can make something of that. I kind of have a cabinet of people that I trust and know. Right now it’s probably worth holding on to for a little bit. We’ll talk about it when it gets a little closer.”
“I would say that the second two-for-one series is off the table. We do definitely need to clear up the first contract. Notre Dame had a schedule agreement with the ACC and it was a great opportunity for them. To think that they joined a conference out of football was a big thing. And so for them to do that changed things and that can happen for us. So I would really be hypocritical to think that I’d hold them to the fire for doing something that’s really good for them. But we’ve played them twice out there, and they need to return this game. But the second series of three games, I understand that.”
Last year, Holmoe touched on the Notre Dame series but indicated the possibility that Notre Dame may never return the game.
“We’re going to work it out one way or another,” Holmoe said. “If they come back to play us (in Provo), that would be great. If they don’t, then there will be some type of settlement and we’ll part as friends.”
The only other scheduling tidbit Holmoe offered was how he will approach future football scheduling moving forward.
Football Schedules