Notre Dame football to visit UVa in 2015; Virginia Tech goes to South Bend in '16

Virginia will host Notre Dame in football in 2015, Virginia Tech will travel to face the Fighting Irish in 2016 and the Hokies' first matchup with Old Dominion will be pushed back to 2017 after a series of scheduling announcements were made Friday.

The ACC finalized the first three-year period of matchups with Notre Dame from 2014-16, fulfilling a scheduling agreement made last fall that will allow the Fighting Irish to maintain its football independence but play every ACC team once every three years.

The Irish have the following games against ACC teams:

• 2014: vs. North Carolina, vs. Louisville, vs. Wake Forest, at Florida State, at Syracuse.
• 2015: vs. Boston College, vs. Georgia Tech, at Clemson, at Pittsburgh, at Virginia.
• 2016: vs. Duke, vs. Miami, vs. Virginia Tech, at N.C. State, at Syracuse.

Virginia has not played the Fighting Irish since 1989. It's the second matchup ever between the schools and the first time the two will meet in Charlottesville.

Virginia Tech and Notre Dame have never met in football. Because the first matchup will be in South Bend, Ind., the Hokies won't be in line to host the Irish until 2017 at the earliest, when the new three-year cycle with Notre Dame goes into effect.

"Anytime you try to bring someone in like this and especially with the reputation and the name of Notre Dame, a lot of things have to happen," Virginia Tech athletic director Jim Weaver said. "I'm pleased that we're playing them. We'll play them a year or two or three after that in Blacksburg. So it really doesn't matter. Everybody will play them the same number of times home and away."

Adding Notre Dame in 2016 forced the Hokies to push back their home game with Old Dominion until 2017. Virginia Tech also announced that it will host Delaware that year to open the season.

Weaver said Virginia Tech's highly anticipated matchups with Ohio State (2014-15) and Wisconsin (2016-17) are still on as scheduled.

ODU signed a three-game series with the Hokies calling for games in 2016 in Blacksburg, 2018 in Norfolk and 2019 in Blacksburg.
The 2016 game will be played on Sept. 23, 2017 instead.

Bruce Stewart, ODU's senior associate athletic director, said Virginia Tech officials called him a couple of weeks ago to ask if the game could be moved. ODU officials readily agreed, he said.

Monarchs athletic director Wood Selig said that ODU was able to move the game to 2017 easily because it has so few games scheduled over the next few years.

"The fact that we're new to FBS and that our schedule is so clean gives us an advantage," he said. "We were able to accommodate the request from Virginia Tech. And I think that flexibility will allow us to schedule some attractive opponents in the future."

ODU will join Conference USA and become a Football Bowl Subdivision team in 2014. The Monarchs play a transition year in 2013, when they play five FBS opponents on the road, including East Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland and Pittsburgh.

ODU has games with N.C. State in Raleigh in 2014 and in Norfolk in 2015 and a 2019 home game against Idaho, but otherwise has no out of conference FBS games scheduled.

Stewart said he's been talking with other schools, but for now wants to wait "until the dust settles" from further conference realignment.

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