Notre Dame picked up a couple games on Wednesday when the ACC announced its plan for the 2020 soccer season, which includes Fighting Irish joining as a member only for the upcoming season. The six ACC teams Notre Dame was originally scheduled to play remain on the team’s record, but the Fighting Irish have added four more, including two that will make extraordinary showdowns in college football.
Assuming the season goes as planned, Notre Dame will now play North Carolina, Florida State, Syracuse, and Boston College, in addition to previously scheduled games against Wake Forest, Pittsburgh, Duke, Clemson, Georgia Tech, and Louisville.
Now, questions linger around the opponent outside of the conference for Notre Dame, which is allowed for each team under the ACC scheduling plan. Before the COVID-19 pandemic that was to end the college football season, Notre Dame planned to open the season in Ireland against its old opponent Navy on Saturday, September 5, while the following week on Saturday, September 12, Arkansas was planning a trip to South Bend in September to confront the Irish. On Thursday, however, Arkansas was kicked out of the race with the news that the SEC would move to a list of 10-game conferences in 2020 alone. That leaves the annual showdown with the Navy still up in the air, while the rest of the Irish outside of the conference the Irish have scheduled is West Michigan at MAC on September 19.
According to ESPN. Notre Dame will clarify this situation in the “near future”. Under ACC’s new plan, the off-conference game for each team must be played in the conference member’s home state, meaning the Navy would have to travel to Indiana to keep the rivalry alive in 2020.
Below is a look at Notre Dame’s 2020 calendar as it currently stands. Previously scheduled off-conference games against Stanford, Wisconsin and USC have already been rejected due to Big Ten and Pac-12 decisions to move to exclusive conference boards in 2020.
Home: Clemson, Duke, State of Florida, Louisville, Syracuse
Far: Boston College, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pitt, Wake Forest
