Indiana has walked away from its home-and-home football series with Notre Dame, scrapping games that were set for 2030 and 2031. It is being reported that Indiana requested the cancellation.
It's the third Power Four non-conference series the Hoosiers have backed out of in recent years, following canceled series with Louisville and Virginia, and it leaves Indiana with zero Power Four non-conference opponents scheduled anywhere on its future slate.
Source confirms to @On3 that the Notre Dame-Indiana home-and-home scheduled for 2030/2031 is being canceled.https://t.co/665f8DYOyU https://t.co/pqvpNTUsag pic.twitter.com/o0gOEtcrKl
— Pete Nakos (@PeteNakos) August 3, 2026
Curt Cignetti's gave an explanation for Indiana's scheduling approach: the Hoosiers are essentially borrowing the SEC's old playbook, loading up on manageable non-conference opponents to offset a brutal nine-game Big Ten schedule.
That argument seems outdated, and it's not good for the sport. The SEC is moving to nine conference games itself this season, and it's now requiring its own teams to schedule at least one Power Four non-conference opponent every year. The model Indiana claims to be copying no longer allows for what Indiana just did.
The Big Ten, for its part, has no such requirement of its own teams, with commissioner Tony Petitti saying the conference will hold off on any mandate until the next Playoff format is settled.
This is bad for the sport on more than one level. Cignetti was in Chicago at Big Ten Media Days talking up the conference's toughness at the same time his own program was quietly killing off one of its few marquee non-conference matchups. Indiana did this as the reigning national champion, a program with nothing left to prove and every incentive to schedule a game fans actually want to see, and chose the opposite direction anyway.
Notre Dame, meanwhile, immediately filled its own open date by renewing a four-game series with USC.
Miami's approach looks nothing like it. Here's some of the big non-conference games that the Hurricanes have on the books:
- 2026: at Notre Dame
- 2027: home against Utah at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, home against South Carolina
- 2028: at Notre Dame
- 2029: home against Auburn
- 2030: at Auburn
- 2031: at Notre Dame
- 2032: home against Notre Dame
- 2034: home against Notre Dame
- 2037: at Notre Dame
Miami has kept its Notre Dame series intact and running deep into the next decade, kept its Auburn home-and-home on the books, and is still opening a season at a neutral site against Utah even as other programs scale back. That's the version of scheduling philosophy that keeps the sport's biggest games actually happening.
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