Notre Dame vs. Texas in 2015

Notre Dame vs. Texas in 2015. That just sounds good. What is not to like about the two tradition rich greats facing off in the regular season?

The buzz around this game will be deafening and that will be especially true if Coach Kelly gets the Fighting Irish back in the hunt in the near future.

Everything about this is good for both programs and that is especially true for Notre Dame. There are a litany of reasons that I believe a quality schedule is a must for Notre Dame to remain independent in the midst of a rapidly changing college football landscape, and I have discussed those at length on more than one occasion.

Over the course of the summer I have come to the conclusion that Athletics Director Jack Swarbrick agrees with me. Not only has Mr. Swarbrick made comments to that effect but his actions have spoken even louder than his words.

Notre Dame already had a deal in the works with Oklahoma and over the course of the summer has also added deals with Miami and now reportedly Texas. Those are exactly the kind of matchups that the Irish need on the schedule.

I realize that line of thinking is a slippery slope but I believe it benefits Notre Dame greatly to have at least 1-2 additional "marquee" matchups on the schedule in addition to USC and Michigan. I won’t rehash everything that I have said in the past but if you are interested in the long version of why I believe that it can be found in "The Role of 7-4-1 in the Fight For Independence" which I wrote back in May.

This is a very good thing, and I am excited to see that it appears to be coming to fruition.

For the Texas perspective see this great post from Trips Right on Barking Carnival.

I would also be remiss not to mention that OFD regular commenter mikemc69 (Formerly known as Longhorn Mike pre FanTake registration) called this back in June. Scroll down and read his comments under this post. He also thinks this is just the tip of the iceberg in what could become a powerful alliance between the two greats. Stay tuned...