In the year 2016... | by Pat

A rather notable change to the schedule is in store with a long time opponent.

Purdue and Notre Dame are expected to continue their traditional football series through the 2015 season but will take a hiatus the following two years.

The two schools have signed contracts through 2014 and an agreement to meet in 2015.

Purdue assistant athletic director Tom Schott said the Boilermakers and the Fighting Irish, who have met continuously since 1946, have agreed to resume the series for a four-year period starting in 2018.

After taking a break from Michigan State for two years to play Arizona State, it will be interesting to see which team the Irish pick up to replace the Boilermakers. Will it be someone on par with the Sun Devils, or higher-profile?

On another scheduling note, it's possible that a matchup with Cincinnati in a pro stadium might be a future possibility, as part of our Big East agreement.

"My preference would be if we could schedule a home game at Paul Brown Stadium every year, we would do it," said UC athletic director Mike Thomas. "But it has to be against the right opponent."

Thomas said he has had discussions with Notre Dame, Tennessee and Michigan about playing at Paul Brown.

"I'm not going to sit here and tell you that that's going to happen," Thomas said, "but that ball is in their court."

Scheduling Notre Dame, Thomas said, is more of a challenge than the other two schools, even though the Fighting Irish, who play in the Big East with UC in all sports except football, have committed to playing other Big East schools in recent years.

"They want to play those schools in the Northeast," Thomas said. "They want to play Syracuse, Rutgers and UConn because they fit their footprint. They already play Midwestern schools like Michigan and Michigan State. But we'd love to play them."

Keep in mind, Thomas is lobbying for a game against ND in the court of public opinion, especially with the "footprint" line. I do think he's right that ND would much rather play the northeastern schools than the Bearcats. And how does this jive with last year's announcement that we'd be playing a home-and-home with every Big East team? We shall see.