Navy finds Notre Dame’s ’20 replacement, yet extends Notre Dame series

Notre Dame and Navy won’t be playing for the first time in almost a century. So who did the Midshipmen replace the Irish with this year?

For the first time since 1926, Notre Dame and Navy won’t be meeting up in football this fall.  I discussed this and how it will just be weird and I won’t like the game not taking place this year, even if it is about as non-traditional as a rivalry can be.

The Naval Academy was probably aware how difficult it would be to pull off the necessary changes in order to pull off the game after the ACC’s requirement of only one non-conference game that had to be played in the ACC team’s home state.  That eliminated Notre Dame from being able to travel to Annapolis for the first time in the history of the series and sadly meant there wouldn’t be a Notre Dame/Navy match-up in 2020.

Notre Dame instead plays Western Michigan as their only non-ACC game and it didn’t take long for Navy to find a replacement in independent BYU, who will now travel to Annapolis on September 7.

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Navy also announced an extension to the Notre Dame series that will run through 2032.

Assuming 2020 is the only year that Notre Dame and Navy are unable to play, they will have played in 105 of 106 seasons after the contract runs out in 2032.