Over the last few years, Week 1 of the college football season has been a multi-day event. On top of a full Saturday slate, we have big games on Thursday and Friday, which is the case throughout the season, and prime time games on Sunday and Monday night. Don’t expect next year’s huge Ohio State–Notre Dame season opener to get that treatment though.
The Buckeyes began their season on Thursday night, with a big game at Minnesota. After a tough start, they got the best of the Golden Gophers 45-31.
Notre Dame has played a few Sunday/Monday games. In 2016, they began the season with a dramatic 50-47 double-overtime loss at Texas on Sunday night. Three years later, they opened with a 35-17 win at Louisville on Monday.
For the 2022 season, however, expect to see the Buckeyes and Fighting Irish play on Saturday, likely in primetime given how big that game is. Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith says he doesn’t plan on moving that game from Saturday, Sept. 3.
Ohio State AD Gene Smith says he wouldn’t play next season’s Week 1 game against Notre Dame on a Sunday or Monday.
Notre Dame opened its season against Florida State this past Sunday.
— Griffin Strom (@GriffinStrom3) September 7, 2021
This home-and-home between the Fighting Irish and Buckeyes was announced all the way back in 2014. The teams will also face off in 2023, with Notre Dame set to host the return game on Saturday, Sept. 23.
Ohio State and Notre Dame are two of the most fabled Midwestern programs in college football history. With that considered, it is surprising that these are set to be just the seventh and eighth games between the two all-time.
The last two came in 2006 and 2016, both at the Fiesta Bowl. Ohio State won both games comfortably, with a 14-point win in the first of those two bowl games, followed by a 16-point win a decade later. The last scheduled home-and-home between the two came in 1995-96. Ohio State swept those two games as well. Notre Dame won the first two meetings between the two squads, in 1935-36.
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