2014 Purdue Game at Lucas Oil Stadium & Other Program Notes

It was announced on Thursday afternoon that the Shamrock Series game for 2014 will be played against the Purdue Boilermakers in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The contest will be played on September 13th and televised by NBC at 7:30 PM ET.

Notre Dame will not meet Purdue for quite a long time after this 2014 meeting. The series will take a 5-year break and resume in 2020 in West Lafayette, in 2021 in South Bend, in 2024 in West Lafayette, and another neutral site game (location TBD) between the programs in 2026.

Purdue AD Morgan Burke had this to say about the announcement:

"Jack and I tried everything we could to keep the series going without interruption. But, between the Big Ten going to a nine-game schedule and Notre Dame's affiliation with the Atlantic Coast Conference, it just didn't work out. The series is important to both schools, and we are pleased that we are able to extend it through 2026."

Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick will hold a press conference on Friday in which he is expected to reveal the football schedules for 2014 through 2016. The conundrum of having 13 teams on next year's schedule appears resolved as it is being reported that the Wake Forest game has been moved to 2015.

Although the Irish are scheduled to play 5 teams from the ACC each year beginning next season for 2014 they will drop down to 4 ACC opponents and then jack it up to 6 ACC teams in 2015.

Here's what 2014 looks like right now with dates needing to be added for home games against Louisville and North Carolina and a road game at Florida State:

• 8/30/14 vs. Rice
• 9/6/14 vs. Michigan
• 9/13/14 vs. Purdue [Lucas Oil Stadium]
• OPEN
• 9/27/14 vs. Syracuse [MetLife Stadium]
• 10/4/14 vs. Stanford
• OPEN
• OPEN
• OPEN
• 11/1/14 at Navy [FedEx Field]
• 11/8/14 at Arizona State
• 11/15/14 vs. Northwestern
• OPEN
• 11/29/14 at Southern California

Glancing at the schedules of the opponents my guess is that the trip to Tallahassee will take place on the first OPEN date of September 20th. That would make a tough early schedule with Michigan, FSU, and Stanford among the first 6 games but at least there's some balance with none of them being back-to-back.

Swarbrick also made some statements on Thursday (LINK HERE $$$) which he will assuredly elaborate on in Friday's press conference. To sum up he stated:

The decision on a new playing surface will be made in the next 60 days. They will either 'tear that thing down' and stay with grass or go with a synthetic surface. A hybrid field will not be used due to cost.

A new basketball facility is tentatively scheduled to be part of the stadium renovation plans.

The assistant coaches are now making more competitive salaries than in previous years.

Check back here after Swarbrick's press conference and we'll discuss anymore details to the future schedules, stadium renovation plans, etc.