Notre Dame and Georgia will meet on the football field in 2017 and 2019, the University announced Wednesday.
The Irish will play the Bulldogs at Notre Dame Stadium on Sept. 9, 2017 and at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga., on Sept. 21, 2019.
“These are two very attractive football games against a Georgia program that also has impressive history and tradition,” Irish coach Brian Kelly said in a press release Wednesday. “[Georgia coach] Mark Richt has done an excellent job keeping that program at the forefront, both in the SEC and nationally.”
Notre Dame and Georgia have never played each other in the regular season. The two teams did meet in the 1981 Sugar Bowl, where the No. 1 Bulldogs beat the No. 7 Irish, 17-10, to clinch that season’s consensus national championship.
The 2017 game will also mark Notre Dame’s first regular-season game against the SEC since Nov. 5, 2005, when it defeated Tennessee, 41-21. The Irish have since played two SEC teams in bowl games — they lost to LSU, 41-14, in the 2007 Sugar Bowl and fell to Alabama, 42-14, in the 2013 BCS National Championship Game.
“As our football schedules evolved with the start of our Atlantic Coast Conference competition in 2014, we had future games slated with top-drawer opponents in virtually all the major conferences,” Notre Dame Director of Athletics Jack Swarbrick said in a press release Wednesday.
“One exception was the Southeastern Conference, so we are pleased now to be able to check that box. These will be two contests that will have great national appeal, in part because our only previous matchup came in a bowl game.”
