Florida cancels home-and-home series with Notre Dame, per report
By Jacob Moss
Published:
One of the biggest changes in college football over the past several years has been the approach programs around the country take when crafting their nonconference schedules. Increasingly, schools are opting to schedule lesser opponents rather than higher-quality competition as a means of improving their chances of making the College Football Playoff.
That unfortunate reality was reinforced Tuesday afternoon when Orlando Sentinel beat writer Edgar Thompson reported that the Florida Gators had officially canceled their upcoming home-and-home series against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
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The series was initially agreed to back in 2021, with the original contract including a clause that the Gators exercised on Tuesday to get out of the matchup without facing any financial penalty.
The series was scheduled to take place in 2031 and 2032, with Florida making the trip to South Bend for the first time in program history on Nov. 15, 2031, before the Irish traveled south to Gainesville the following year. The 2031 matchup would have marked just the second meeting between these two iconic programs, with their only previous encounter coming in the 1992 Sugar Bowl.
It’s a tough pill to swallow for both fan bases, but with the SEC now requiring nine conference games per season and Florida already committed to playing Florida State every year, it appears the leadership in Gainesville found it difficult to justify keeping Notre Dame on the schedule as well.
