Notre Dame’s 2027 football schedule just got a new look, and it came with a familiar rivalry taking a temporary detour.
Purdue announced Tuesday, Nov. 3, that Notre Dame is off the Boilermakers’ schedule in 2027. Not long after, Notre Dame filled that opening by lining up a home-and-home series with Illinois, a Big Ten opponent the Irish haven’t faced since 1968.
The new series will begin Sept. 4, 2027, when Illinois comes to Notre Dame Stadium. The return game is set for Sept. 2, 2028, in Champaign.
The move comes as schools keep reshaping future schedules with the College Football Playoff set to expand from 12 teams to 24 as soon as 2027. That larger field has made schedule management a bigger part of the equation.
For Notre Dame, the 2027 slate already has plenty on it. The Irish open at home against Kent State on Aug. 28, then also have road games at Michigan State on Sept. 18 and at Clemson on Oct.
- Home dates include Auburn on Sept. 25 and Navy on Nov. 20, while BYU remains listed as TBD.
Notre Dame’s six-game ACC schedule includes Wake Forest on Oct. 9 in Charlotte, Virginia Tech on Nov. 6, and road trips to Stanford on Nov. 27, Virginia and Duke, with those last two still listed as TBD.
Purdue’s decision to move on for now clears room for West Virginia, which the Boilermakers added to a three-game non-conference schedule that also includes Miami (Ohio) and FCS program Albany. In its release, Purdue said the West Virginia addition “will place a pause on Purdue’s longstanding series against Notre Dame.”
That series has been one-sided for a while. Purdue has lost 11 straight to Notre Dame since its last win in 2007. The Irish have also taken the last four meetings since 2021, and those three most recent games were a runaway on the scoreboard, with a combined margin of 171-47.
“Getting Coach Odom’s program into matchups that best serve our goals and ambitions has been a focus of mine since arriving in West Lafayette,” first-year athletic director Tommy McClelland said in a statement. “The tradition-rich rivalry of Purdue and Notre Dame, a matchup that has been played on and off 90 times in program history, will be reevaluated for potential addition to future schedules.”
Notre Dame and Purdue first met in 1896, and since 1957 they’ve played for the Shillelagh Trophy. Notre Dame leads the all-time series 62-26-2.
The Irish also had another scheduling change earlier this year. In early August, Indiana canceled its two-game series with Notre Dame for 2030-31, and Notre Dame responded by adding a four-game resumption of its traditional series with USC from 2030-33.
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