Back in January, prior to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, Notre Dame Athletic Director Pete Bevacqua told a group of reporters he wanted to play Clemson more.

On Tuesday, Bevacqua’s wish came true, as Clemson and Notre Dame agreed to a 12-year home-and-home series beginning in 2027.

What does it all mean?

“We strive to consistently create a football schedule that positions us for success in the College Football Playoff, and that goal requires us to form historic partnerships like this one with Clemson,” Bevacqua said in a prepared release.

This move helps Notre Dame get a consistent marquee opponent on the schedule. As an independent, it’s somewhat hit or miss in terms of strength of schedule. The 2024 season was a great example of the unknown, as Texas A&M (away), Stanford, Florida State and USC (away) looked good on paper but turned out to be duds. 

Does Notre Dame play an SEC-caliber schedule? No.

But they consistently look to challenge themselves and probably a little too much. Looking back to 2021 (post-COVID), Notre Dame has opened the season on the road at Florida, Ohio State, Navy (in Ireland), Texas A&M and will open the 2025 campaign at Miami. 

Clemson definitely boosts the Irish’s strength of schedule and gives some flexibility to start the year, which is what most teams do and where Notre Dame needs to improve. If you add Clemson to the 2025 schedule of at Miami, Texas A&M, at Arkansas, Boise State and USC, then I’m not sure anyone is going to complain about what teams the Irish played. 

The move also positions Clemson for success in this new college football world. It also does something even more important – it creates another revenue stream for Clemson.

It appears the extra games for the Irish will count towards Notre Dame’s five annual ACC matchups. However, that is still an on-going discussion with Notre Dame and the league.

Though Notre Dame expects these matchups with Clemson to be a part of their five annual ACC games, right now, only the 2027, ’28, ’31, ’34 and ’37 games are a part of the agreement between the ACC and Notre Dame.

Regardless of whether the games count at part of Notre Dame’s five ACC games, the match ups provide Clemson with annual highly billed non-conference games.

“We have immense excitement for the creation of this 12-year series between these two premier programs, as we know these will be must-see matchups for fans at Memorial Stadium and Notre Dame Stadium as well as television audiences nationwide,” Clemson athletic director Graham Neff said.

Clemson will have an opportunity to increase its revenue based on the league’s new revenue sharing model and grant of rights deal which allowed Clemson, Florida State and the ACC to end their lawsuits back in March.

The settlements are expected to include increased payouts to Clemson and Florida State, as part of a new brand initiative. TCI learned through our sourcing, the new deal will give Clemson and other ACC institutions significant flexibility on the league’s Grant of Rights and significant increase of the ACC’s revenue distribution.

The new model is expected to go into effect on the next academic calendar, which begins on July 1.

Clemson and Florida State are expected to benefit the most from this new revenue distribution model. As reported by ESPN, the settlement will call for 40 percent of the ACC’s revenues to be split equally between league members, while the other 60 percent will be divided based on a five-year rolling average of television ratings.

The extra kicker in all of this, especially for Clemson, is it will boost the Tigers’ strength of schedule. Notre Dame now gives Clemson, along with its annual rivalry game with South Carolina, a consistent marquee non-conference opponent to play every year.

Since the inception of the CFP, the two schools have combined for 10 CFP appearances, including seven by Clemson and three by Notre Dame. Both squads qualified for the playoff in 2018, 2020 and 2024, and Clemson claimed additional berths in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019.

Clemson is currently riding a streak of 14 consecutive seasons with nine or more wins, the nation’s second-longest active streak and the fourth-longest streak in major college football history. Notre Dame has recorded a streak of eight straight seasons with at least nine wins, the nation’s third-longest active streak.

As for Clemson’s other future non-conference games with Power 4 opponents, the verdict is still out on whether those matchups will occur or not. Right now, the Tigers are still scheduled to play Georgia in 2029, ’30, ’32 and ’33, while they are also scheduled to still play Oklahoma in 2035 and ’36.

However, a lot can change between now and then. Based on what happened on Tuesday, there are discussions that could impact future schedules.

Also, the SEC is talking about going to a nine-game schedule and that will obviously affect future schedules for Clemson, as well based on the information above.

This much is known, in 2029, Clemson is scheduled to play East Carolina, Georgia, Notre Dame, Furman and South Carolina in non-conference games. Obviously, with eight conference games on the schedule, Clemson will have to cancel one of those five non-conference games.

There are quiet rumblings Notre Dame is trying to work out some type of partnership with Florida State and Miami as well. It’s not likely Notre Dame will have a 12-year contract with three schools as the ACC wouldn’t bite at that, but the consistent forces in the ACC appear on board to help each other and the Irish when it comes to improving the schedule. 

At this point, Notre Dame’s partnership with Clemson doesn’t impact any of the rivalries outside of Stanford because Notre Dame isn’t in a conference. Will the ACC allow Notre Dame to take two slots each year for Clemson and Stanford with a possible third slot being Florida State or Miami? They would be smart to do that, as no one watches Stanford football.

The Big Ten will control that as it relates to USC. Notre Dame and Michigan don’t have a series set until 2033 and 2034.

—Matt Freeman from Irish Sports Daily contributed to this story.