Notre Dame and Florida schedule home and home series in about a decade

Stop being mad about scheduling the future

On Tuesday, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish announced that they have scheduled a home and home series in football with the Florida Gators. The Irish will host Florida for a “cold” November 15, 2031 matchup, while the Gators will host Notre Dame for a steamy game on September 11, 2032.

So that’s really cool.

Notre Dame and Florida have only played one other time in their history, and that was a the famous 1992 Sugar Bowl in which the Irish ran all over the Gators for a 39-28 win. Yes… it was the infamous “Cheerios Bowl.”

Of course — this game is still a decade away and that has some fans whining about 2020’s Coastal Carolina / BYU game that was scheduled and played in about 4 days. Some think this is a possible blueprint for the future where teams should schedule one or two games on the fly each year.

But it’s not a blueprint because it’s a stupid concept in a normal world.

The reason the Coastal/BYU game worked so well was because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the flexible nature of all schools playing this fall — and it was because it was just two teams trying to do this and not 128.

Just add 50 schools to the mix of a scheduling philosophy like this and it’s a a couple of dozen pies in the face just waiting to happen. Athletic Directors schedule in advance because scheduling FBS football games is extremely complicated once you factor everything into the equation (like travel logistics, fans, TV, and much more). Get over it — it’s fine.

So let’s just celebrate something very cool — even if it’s a decade away. Jack Swarbrick was able to get an SEC school to come to South Bend for a November game. Bravo to Jack and bravo to Florida which has a set of balls on them that are quite different than those that fear a wee nip in the air.

Looking right at you USC.