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By now you’ve no doubt seen or heard that Michigan and Notre Dame are set to renew their storied rivalry, which went dormant in 2014. Details are for a home-and-home in 2018-19.
Citing scheduling concerns with their expanded ACC slate, Notre Dame announced in 2012 that it would back out. At the time, while we hailed "the end of an era," some of our own bid the Irish good riddance as they walked away.
Subsequently, Michigan seconded the sentiment and played "The Chicken Dance" after beating the Irish in Ann Arbor in 2013, while Notre Dame’s parting shot was a 31-rip pasting in South Bend the following year.
Begun in 1887 and more recently played every year from 2002 to 2014, Michigan leads the series, 24-17-1.
Graham Filler: Michigan and Notre Dame is all the things a rivalry should be: overinflated sense of importance towards the game, actually competitive matchups, tremendous history in the rivalry, spectacular imagery.
There was never a reason for not playing, well, except the fact that Notre Dame admins didn't like their difficult schedule and Notre Dame fans have began downplaying the importance of the rivalry (i.e. "Guess who cares more about this game, oh it's Michigan" /laughs in Northwestern-esque accent).
Good to have it back. It makes too much regional and historical sense.
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Update: per a myriad of sources (this one's the UMich release), the 2018 iteration will be played at Notre Dame on September 1, while the return trip will be at Michigan on October 26, 2019.
To make room, Michigan canceled a series with Arkansas and moved its game with Rutgers from the October date to its open date on September 28.
As far as Notre Dame and the Big Ten are concerned, the Irish now are scheduled to host Michigan State in 2016, visit the Spartans in 2017, host Michigan in September and then visit Northwestern in November of 2018, travel to Michigan in 2019 and Purdue in 2020, then host the Boilermakers in 2021. Way-far-off home-and-homes then include Ohio State in 2022-23, Purdue in 2024-25 (with a neutral site game, likely Lucas Oil, in 2026), and Michigan State in 2026-27.