Clemson, ND to announce 12-year schedule deal

Clemson and Notre Dame are set to announce a 12-year scheduling agreement that will pit the two college football powers against each other annually through 2038.

The Tigers and Irish have a recent history of marquee showdowns — they last met in 2023, when Clemson won 31-23 — and the schools believe the new agreement, which begins in 2027, could be the start of a top-tier rivalry.

“It’s been such a great rivalry and we want to see it happen every year,” Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua said. “It’s historically been a great back-and-forth. I think we could see it continue to develop into one of the great rivalries in college football.”

Clemson and Notre Dame have played eight times, but many of their matchups have been marquee events. In 2015, Dabo Swinney captured attention for calling Clemson’s two-point win over the Irish in the midst of a downpour a “bring your own guts game” that helped set the stage for the Tigers’ first College Football Playoff appearance. In 2018, Clemson beat Notre Dame 30-3 in the Cotton Bowl before winning a national title two weeks later. In 2020, as Notre Dame played as a full-time member of the ACC due to COVID-19 scheduling concerns, the Irish won a shootout in the regular season only to fall to Clemson in the ACC championship game. Both teams made the playoff that year.

For both schools, however, the agreement has practical implications. Notre Dame ensures a marquee matchup on its schedule as it hopes to build a playoff résumé as an independent. For Clemson, an annual game against one of the biggest brands in college football figures to juice ratings for the Tigers as the ACC begins a new era in which revenue is distributed, in part, based on TV ratings.

The agreement also offers some scheduling flexibility and insurance for both schools as the SEC continues to discuss moving to a nine-game conference slate. The Tigers play South Carolina annually in a rivalry game, but they also have future home-and-home series scheduled against LSU (2025 and 2026), Georgia (2029, 2030, 2032 and 2033), and Oklahoma (2035 and 2036). A nine-game SEC slate could put some of those future matchups in jeopardy — though multiple sources told ESPN they do not see annual SEC-ACC rivalry games such as Clemson-South Carolina being canceled — but even if all currently scheduled games remain on the docket, these matchups figure to help with playoff résumés.

“This locks in a huge rivalry for us with a nonconference opponent that’s going to be strong year in and year out,” Clemson athletics director Graham Neff said. “The association of national brands like Clemson and Notre Dame create a great fan experience, strong viewership and value on that is obviously a fundamental component.”

Clemson and Notre Dame are already scheduled to play in 2027, 2028, 2031, 2034 and 2037, and the new agreement will overlap with those dates. A source confirmed the annual games will also count toward Notre Dame’s required five games vs. ACC opponents. All games in the series would remain on the schedule regardless of Clemson’s future conference affiliation, however.

Scheduling is expected to be a significant topic at the ACC spring meetings later this month, as the league looks to bolster its own playoff prospects.

The Notre Dame agreement, which remained unchanged after the ACC added Cal, Stanford and SMU prior to the 2024 season, will be one part of those discussions. With the Irish now playing both Clemson and Stanford annually, that would leave just three other required matchups against the conference, and the ACC is looking to maximize those opportunities to create marquee TV events by pitting the Irish against the ACC’s top teams.

Florida State athletic director Michael Alford told ESPN he would have no problem playing Notre Dame more than the five games already scheduled through 2037. Going back to 2014, when Notre Dame and the ACC agreed to its scheduling partnership, Florida State will have played the Irish 10 times, more than any school in the ACC except Pittsburgh.

“Today in college football, more than ever, it’s important for strong brands to play strong brands,” Alford said. “That helps our brand, as well as all of us within the conference. We’ve been consistent in that belief for a while now as you can see in our nonconference scheduling philosophy. It’s important for our conference and our media partners.”

Miami athletic director Dan Radakovich echoed those comments, saying, “brands need to play brands.” The Hurricanes and Irish have a long and storied history dating back to the famed “Catholics vs. Convicts” showdown in 1988. The two schools currently have seven future games scheduled — including the season opener this year on Aug. 31. That will be their first meeting since 2017.

Radakovich said he thinks the ACC needs to explore ways to pit its best teams against each other and maximize non-conference opportunities to create top TV inventory in an increasingly competitive environment with the Big Ten and ACC harnessing the bulk of the best TV time slots and the league works to ensure multiple playoff bids as the sport moves toward another expansion of the postseason field.

“The brands need to play each other more,” Radakovich said. “That’s what has to happen. Do we divide into two divisions? Who gets to play Notre Dame? How are we doing those kinds of things? And if the SEC goes to nine (conference games) we might have to go to nine as well with a bifurcated brands and non-brands [divide].”

ESPN’s Andrea Adelson contributed to this report.

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