Curt Cignetti Reveals Desired Stipulation for IU vs. Notre Dame Games After Canceling Series

Two weeks after Indiana canceled a home-and-home series with Notre Dame in the 2030 and 2031 seasons, Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti laid out a scenario to get the matchup back on the schedule.

Appearing on the Big Ten Network, Cignetti proposed a three-game series with two of the matchups in Bloomington because Notre Dame is "not in a conference."

The Indiana-Notre Dame home-and-home series was originally agreed upon in April 2021, more than two full years before Cignetti was officially hired by the Hoosiers in November 2023.

Pete Sampson of The Athletic reported on Aug. 3 that Notre Dame and USC agreed to a four-year contract to bring back their legendary rivalry starting in 2030 after Indiana backed out of playing the Irish.

Amid all of the success Cignetti has had in two seasons as IU head coach, one criticism that's popped up is the lack of high-caliber non-conference opponents on the schedule.

The Hoosiers have not played one Power Four opponent outside of their regular-season non-conference schedule since Cignetti was hired in 2024. Their list of opponents over the past two seasons includes Florida International, Western Illinois, Charlotte, Old Dominion, Kennesaw State and Indiana State.

All six of those games have been played at Memorial Stadium.

Indiana has also canceled series against Louisville and Virginia. The Louisville games, which were to be played in 2024 and 2025, were removed from the schedule two months before Cignetti was hired.

"That was a scheduling philosophy that began before I was hired," Cignetti told the Big Ten Network about the Louisville games, "but I did sign off on it upon being hired before our first season, OK? ... We figured we would just adopt an SEC scheduling philosophy."

Indiana's current slate of non-conference opponents through the 2032 season doesn't include a Power Four game at this point.

It does help the Hoosiers that the Big Ten now runs 18 teams deep with Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan, USC and Penn State routinely ranked in the top 25 polls that no one will hold the non-conference schedule against them.

Indiana and Notre Dame have played 30 head-to-head matchups with the most recent meeting coming in the first round of the College Football Playoff during the 2024 season.

The Fighting Irish won 27-17 in what remains the last loss for the Hoosiers, who went 15-0 during the 2025 season en route to winning the first national title in program history.

IU and Notre Dame haven't played in the regular season since Sept. 7, 1991. Notre Dame has a 24-5-1 all-time record against its in-state rival.