Indiana may have canceled its upcoming series with Notre Dame, but Curt Cignetti says he’d still like to see the two programs meet again.
And he seemingly took a dig at the in-state rival along the eway.
“I’d like to play Notre Dame,” Cignetti said this week. “They ought to come to our place twice, and we’ll go there once, since they’re not in a conference.”
The Hoosiers’ head coach made his curious comments despite reports that his school was the one that backed out of the heavyweight non-conference series.
Earlier this month, The Athletic reported it was Indiana who requested to cancel the home-and-home with Notre Dame in 2030 and 2031.
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.
