Illinois announced a home-and-home football series with Notre Dame on Tuesday, setting up the first meeting between the two programs since 1968. The agreement forces Notre Dame to cancel its planned series with Purdue, according to 247Sports.
Illinois will travel to South Bend on Sept. 4, 2027, then host the Fighting Irish in Champaign on Sept. 2, 2028. The games replace Missouri on Illinois’ schedule for both of those seasons.
Notre Dame Illinois Football Series Dates And Venues
The two-game set opens at Notre Dame Stadium on Sept. 4, 2027 and concludes at Memorial Stadium in Champaign on Sept. 2, 2028. Both matchups are scheduled for the opening weeks of their respective seasons.
Illinois Athletic Director Josh Whitman said the series had long been a goal for the program. “This is a series I have wanted to get on the football schedule since I arrived in 2016,” Whitman said. “It has been too long since these two tradition-rich programs have met, given our proximity, common values, and deep roots in Chicago and throughout the Midwest.
We expect to see a lot of Orange and Blue next year in South Bend and believe the 2028 matchup in Champaign will be one of our most anticipated home games in decades. Thank you to Notre Dame, Pete Bevacqua, Ron Powlus, and Coach Freeman for helping to make this exciting series a reality.”
What It Means For Illinois And Notre Dame
Adding Notre Dame to the schedule helps Illinois meet scheduling demands tied to the expanded 24-team College Football Playoff, which requires Power Four programs to play at least 10 games against other Power Four teams or Notre Dame, according to 247Sports. Dropping Missouri from the 2027 and 2028 slates clears the path for the new series while still giving Illinois a marquee nonconference opponent each year.
For Notre Dame, the trade-off means walking away from its scheduled series with Purdue. The two programs have met regularly for decades, but Notre Dame opted to prioritize Illinois instead. The Fighting Irish have not identified a replacement for the open dates left by the canceled Purdue games.
Purdue Series Cancellation And Fallout
Purdue’s 2027 game at Notre Dame, previously scheduled for Sept. 4, 2027, will no longer take place, per Sports Illustrated. The cancellation already has ripple effects elsewhere on Purdue’s schedule. West Virginia added a home game against Purdue for the 2027 season, according to Sports Illustrated, giving the Boilermakers a new opponent to help fill the void left by the Notre Dame series ending.
The sources do not detail what happens to Notre Dame and Purdue’s 2028 matchup or confirm whether any other games in that series were affected.
History Between The Programs
Notre Dame holds a dominant edge in the all-time series, with Illinois sitting at 0-11-1 against the Irish. The programs have not met on the field since 1968, making the upcoming 2027 opener in South Bend the first renewal of the rivalry in nearly six decades.
What’s Next
Notre Dame opens the home-and-home series at Notre Dame Stadium on Sept. 4, 2027, before hosting Illinois in Champaign on Sept. 2, 2028. Both programs continue to build out the rest of their schedules around the new series, with Notre Dame still needing to address the scheduling gap left by the Purdue cancellation.
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