With final Michigan game looming, Notre Dame announces Ohio State series

Is this a troll of Michigan?

Just days before Notre Dame plays its last scheduled game against Michigan, the Fighting Irish announced a future series with Ohio State, the Wolverines' most-hated rival. The two teams are playing a home-and-home series in 2022-23, with the first game in Columbus, Ohio, and the return game in South Bend, Ind.

Sure, it could be a case of incredibly (un)fortunate timing. But as the Michigan-Notre Dame series comes to a halt, this is easily seen as a gesture towards Michigan. After all, the program that wanted to build a bigger national footprint via games with ACC teams and series with Georgia and Texas just scheduled a team that is, much like Michigan, in a neighboring state to Indiana.

Oh, that future series is also eight years away. It wasn't like the teams are going to each other next season or scrambling to fill an open spot on the calendar this year.

Add in Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick's comments about the strength of schedule component that Ohio State brings to the table (eight years from now, when it's anyone's guess who could be coaching Notre Dame and Ohio State), and you can see how Michigan fans may be fuming.

“I am excited we are able once again to bring these two programs together on the football field,” Swarbrick said in a statement.  “Football games between Notre Dame and Ohio State make great sense from a strength-of-schedule standpoint. In addition, with (Ohio State athletics director) Gene Smith having both played and coached football at Notre Dame-and with (Ohio State head coach) Urban Meyer having served as an assistant football coach at Notre Dame-there are some obvious, high-profile connections between our two institutions.”

Notre Dame was the school that ended the rivalry in its current form. In 2012, the school exercised its right to get out of the final three years of the series, meaning the last game in Michigan was last season and the last game in South Bend is Saturday night. In its place is an agreement with the ACC that coach Brian Kelly said benefitted Notre Dame's other sports more.

In the statement Notre Dame released on Thursday, Kelly called the pending ND-OSU matchup one of national significance.

“Any time you talk about Notre Dame and Ohio State meeting in a football game, that event automatically is going to have huge national significance,” Kelly said. “For fans and alumni of the two schools, not to mention college football fans in general, these games will be great attractions.”

Last year, Kelly said that Notre Dame-Michigan was a regional rivalry before backing off those statements two days later. On Wednesday, Kelly said that Michigan being off the schedule opened up more "exciting possibilties" for the Irish.

Yes, Michigan and Notre Dame weren't scheduled to play in the 2020s when the contract was axed two years ago. But you can see how a Michigan fan could interpret Ohio State as an exciting possibility given the comments surrounding the series and the timing of Thursday's announcement. There aren't many things worse in college sports than thinking a rival views another rival as a better option than you are.

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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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