Although Indiana recently axed its future series with Notre Dame, head coach Curt Cignetti remains hopeful for a future clash between the teams.
As he expressed his desire for the matchup, Cignetti appeared to jab subtly at the local rival.
“I’d like to play Notre Dame,” Cignetti remarked this week. “Since they’re not in a conference, they ought to come to our place twice, and we’ll head there once.”
Interestingly, Cignetti’s bold comments come amid speculation that Indiana was the party to initially back out of the high-profile non-conference matchup.
Reports surfaced earlier this month via The Athletic, indicating that it was Indiana who sought to call off the home-and-home series slated for 2030 and 2031 with Notre Dame.
The Hoosiers were set to go to South Bend in 2030 before welcoming the Fighting Irish a year later.
Notre Dame has since revived its longtime rivalry matchup with USC in 2031, adding a high-profile opponent to their schedule in the coming years.
The two teams agreed to a new four-year series beginning in 2030 after their rivalry was paused this season after having met every year aside from a three-season hiatus from 1943-45 during World War II and the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
Indiana, which came out of nowhere to win the national championship a year ago, currently has a light non-conference schedule compared to other title contenders.
This season, they’ll take on North Texas, Howard and Western Kentucky before their Big 10 schedule.
During Big 10 media days a year ago, Cignetti indicated that it wasn’t an accident.
“We figured we would just adopt an SEC scheduling philosophy,” he said. “Some people don’t like it. I’m more focused on those nine conference games.”
Notre Dame has faced criticism of its own for a relatively light 2026 schedule, particularly with USC off the slate and several of its ACC opponents expected to struggle.