U-M vs. Notre Dame could be coming back, Brian Kelly says

One of the biggest scheduling disappointments for Michigan football fans in recent years was the loss of the Notre Dame series.

But it's possible that might not last for long.

Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly said on the Rich Eisen show today that a Michigan vs. Notre Dame renewal is back on the table.

"I think it's trending up," he said. "It's something that we need to get obviously in line to get that going. I think that's something that everybody wants to get going and get Michigan back on the schedule. ... I think that sentiment is coming back to the forefront of where college football needs to be. Some of those classic rivalries coming back together. I know we're going to be working hard to see if we can get that done."

The Wolverines and Fighting Irish have played each other most years since 1978, with occasional two-year breaks. They had played every year 2002-14.

However, former U-M athletic director Dave Brandon was informed by Notre Dame in 2012 that it was ending the contract, and U-M scheduled home-and-home games with major opponents to fill the gap for the next decade. The last Michigan-Notre Dame game for the foreseeable future was last season, a 31-0 Irish win.

Kelly said he's not privy to conversations between the schools, "but using words like trending up, this is something that wants to occur, that's what I'm hearing," he said. "I think you're going to see it happen."

Notre Dame wanted to end the series because of its five-game commitment to play ACC opponents every year and its desire to have one West Coast game (USC or Stanford) each season. That left little flexibility with the series against Navy, Michigan State, Michigan and Purdue, and some of those were jettisoned.

Michigan's next schedule vacancy is Sept. 8, 2018. Notre Dame has Ball State slated for that date, but is open the two surrounding weeks, so if Ball State could move, that's a possibility.

Neither team has an official game scheduled for Sept. 7, 2019, but fbschedules.com reported this summer that U-M will host Army.

Contact Mark Snyder: msnyder@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mark__snyder.

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