THIS MAY HAVE BEEN ALREADY NOTED.
Among the 131 schools in FBS, only Notre Dame, USC and UCLA had never played an opponent from FCS until 2022, when UCLA played an FCS (Sept. 10, 2022, versus HBCU Alabama State).
In 2023, Notre Dame will play their first ever FCS opponent, Tennessee State.
Notre Dame and the historically Black university based in Nashville, Tenn., will meet on Sept. 2, 2023 at Notre Dame Stadium, a week after the Irish face Navy in Dublin to open the season.
The Tigers are coached by former Tennessee Titans running back Eddie George.
By scheduling an FCS opponent the week after a trip abroad, Notre Dame avoids an idle week early in the season and thus will have two off weeks in the thick of the fall calendar. (From the Aug. 26 matchup with Navy to the end of November is 14 weeks to fit 12 games.)
Tennessee State went 5-6 in 2021, ending it with a 55-10 loss at then-No. 25 Mississippi State in November. George’s first season as head coach featured a one-win improvement in conference play compared to the Tigers’ pandemic-shortened 2020 season, going 3-3 under George and 2-5 the year prior.
USC nearly became the first of those three schools to face an FCS team, scheduling UC Davis as its 2021 opener. Fans’ outcry led to the Trojans canceling the game and paying UC Davis $725,000 instead, so that USC could play some weak FBS team instead.
“I have to give our donors and fans a lot of the credit,” USC athletic director Mike Bohn said upon canceling the game, scheduled before he joined the Trojans administration. “Preserving our history is critically important to us and to our fans, so we worked to make that happen.”
Among the 131 schools in FBS, only Notre Dame, USC and UCLA had never played an opponent from FCS until 2022, when UCLA played an FCS (Sept. 10, 2022, versus HBCU Alabama State).
In 2023, Notre Dame will play their first ever FCS opponent, Tennessee State.
Notre Dame and the historically Black university based in Nashville, Tenn., will meet on Sept. 2, 2023 at Notre Dame Stadium, a week after the Irish face Navy in Dublin to open the season.
The Tigers are coached by former Tennessee Titans running back Eddie George.
By scheduling an FCS opponent the week after a trip abroad, Notre Dame avoids an idle week early in the season and thus will have two off weeks in the thick of the fall calendar. (From the Aug. 26 matchup with Navy to the end of November is 14 weeks to fit 12 games.)
Tennessee State went 5-6 in 2021, ending it with a 55-10 loss at then-No. 25 Mississippi State in November. George’s first season as head coach featured a one-win improvement in conference play compared to the Tigers’ pandemic-shortened 2020 season, going 3-3 under George and 2-5 the year prior.
USC nearly became the first of those three schools to face an FCS team, scheduling UC Davis as its 2021 opener. Fans’ outcry led to the Trojans canceling the game and paying UC Davis $725,000 instead, so that USC could play some weak FBS team instead.
“I have to give our donors and fans a lot of the credit,” USC athletic director Mike Bohn said upon canceling the game, scheduled before he joined the Trojans administration. “Preserving our history is critically important to us and to our fans, so we worked to make that happen.”
