Notre Dame cancels games with Michigan from 2015-17

Michigan became the first casualty of Notre Dame’s new scheduling agreement with the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon said on Tuesday that the Irish

have cancelled the scheduled games between the two traditional

powerhouses from 2015-17, effectively ending the series after the 2014

edition. The schools already had planned to take a break in the series

for 2018 and 2019, so the earliest the teams could play again is 2020.

“The decision to cancel games in 2015-17 was Notre Dame’s and not

ours,” Brandon said. “We

value our annual rivalry with Notre Dame but will have to see what the

future holds for any continuation of the series. This cancellation

presents new scheduling opportunities for our program and provides a

chance to create some new rivalries.”

Beginning in 2014, the Irish

will be playing five games a year against ACC opponents. Notre Dame

athletic director Jack Swarbrick has already said that Navy, USC and

Stanford will stay on the schedule. That put traditional rivalries such

as Purdue, Michigan State and Michigan in jeopardy.

“Our contract with Michigan has an automatic rollover provision —

with a year being added each time a game is played,” said Notre Dame

senior associate athletics director John Heisler. “We needed to avoid the automatic addition

of additional games until we can get a better understanding of our

available inventory in those years — an understanding that will develop

as we implement our five-game scheduling commitment to the Atlantic Coast Conference.”

The Michigan rivalry, while one of the more high-profile ones on the

schedule, is actually quite young compared with MSU and Purdue. Notre

Dame has played Michigan State 76 times and Purdue 84 times. The Irish

have played Michigan 40 times.

Brandon told SiriusXM radio on Tuesday afternoon that he received the

letter regarding Notre Dame’s decision an hour before kickoff on

Saturday.