Will Notre Dame vs. Texas Become the Latest Scheduling Casualty of College Football Playoff Expansion?

The future of the College Football Playoff remains a massive talking point coming out of the Big Ten and SEC meetings.

The two conferences, who are at the head of the table when it comes to the future of the College Football postseason, have to agree on any proposed expansionary change to the current 12-team playoff before it can be put into effect.

The Big Ten’s 24-team proposal, which is currently opposed by SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, remains the flavor of the week. Any expansion for the 2027 season has to be approved by December 1 of this year—which is the deadline to inform ESPN for broadcast-rights purposes.

The playoff and its future has plenty of ramifications on future regular seasons, and the significance (or lack thereof) of matchups within them.

One of the top non-conference home-and-home matchups in the near-term is a two-year agreement between Notre Dame and Texas, which is set to begin when the Longhorns travel to South Bend in September 2028.

When asked about the premier non-conference matchup at the SEC spring meetings, Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte didn’t sound convinced with 100% certainty that the game would take place.

“They’re tentatively on the schedule right now,” Del Conte said Wednesday, per Brett McMurphy of On3.

Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua sounded a bit more optimistic about the matchup two weeks ago at ACC spring meetings, when he told Pete Sampson of The Athletic that he “felt good about scheduling.”

Texas Longhorns quarterback Tyrone Swoopes runs for the game winning touchdown against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. — Texas and Notre Dame last played a home-and-home in 2015 and ‘16, with each team winning its home game in the series. | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Perhaps it’s just the uncertainty of the playoff that has given Del Conte pause, but programs across college football are certainly keeping their options open in regard to future schedules. In an era where premier matchups against top teams may not help as much as it may hurt when it comes to playoff seeding (or outright inclusion), there may not be an impetus to schedule big-time games anymore …especially from Texas’s standpoint, with the SEC moving to a nine-game conference schedule this fall.

Notre Dame might be a bit more motivated to play the Longhorns due to the school’s lack of a conference affiliation and a need for quality opponents on the schedule. However, the Fighting Irish have an agreement in place for the College Football Playoff beginning this fall that guarantees the school a spot in the bracket if they finish in the top 12 in the season’s final CFP rankings. (This agreement only applies if the playoff remains at 12 or increases to 14 teams.) A loss to Texas likely wouldn’t hurt the Fighting Irish too bad, but could be held against the program in a multi-loss season.

Programs that are serious about college football are all asking a similar question when it comes to premier opponents in non-conference scheduling: “Is the juice worth the squeeze?”

For Texas, it remains to be seen.

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