Georgia and Notre Dame announced a home-and-home series today that will take place in 2017 and 2019. The teams will play in South Bend on September 9, 2017 and in Athens on September 21, 2019.

No big deal…just another ACC school, right?

It should be a high-profile matchup between two of the nation’s traditional powers who have only met once before. It looks as if the first meeting would be on the second week of the season. You’d expect Georgia to open up with a lightweight home game and then get into conference play after they return from South Bend. If the current SEC schedule holds, that might mean a back-to-back stretch with Notre Dame and South Carolina. The 2019 game in Athens is likely on the fourth week of the season. That allows for everything from an easier nonconference game to, again, South Carolona, to a bye week before the Fighting Irish come to town.

We’re excited about it, but it’s still going to be worth keeping an eye on the changing winds of the college football landscape between now and then. If, for example, the SEC moves to nine conference games, would Georgia seek to get out of the series? AD Greg McGarity has stated how strongly that ninth game would affect his outlook on these high-profile nonconference games. Today’s news is a very public commitment along the lines of an 11-year SEC scheduling rotation, but I’ll believe it when we see the 55,000 point cutoff announced in 2017.