Notre Dame Football: Irish Won’t Honor BYU Deal & Play in Provo before 2021

It appears the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will give the BYU Cougars “a big payday” instead of traveling to Provo before 2021.

The Irish released its final 2019 and 2020 schedules today -- and it did not include its fellow independent hailing from the Beehive State.

The two schools struck an agreement in 2010 to play two “two-for-one”s — i.e. BYU would visit South Bend twice for every Irish visit to Provo. When the Irish affiliated with the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2013, the agreement was cut in half.

At that point, BYU had already fulfilled its obligation, having traveled east in 2012 and 2013. Notre Dame merely had to find room on its schedule between 2014 and 2020 to visit Utah.

It did not do so.

This game has looked increasingly unlikely for a while, and Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick hasn’t spoken publicly about the series since December of 2015. BYU Athletic Director Tom Holmoe said this past August that discussions were ongoing, which raises the possibility of a second amendment in which the Irish could fulfill its obligation after the original 2020 deadline.

I’ve reached out to both Michael Bertsch, Notre Dame director of football media relations and Brett Pyne, BYU football media relations director for insight and will update if they respond.