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Notre Dame, Wisconsin series at NFL stadiums finalized

Sam Cooper
College football writer
Wisconsin knocked off LSU at Lambeau Field in 2016. The Badgers will return to Green Bay to face Notre Dame in 2020. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
Wisconsin knocked off LSU at Lambeau Field in 2016. The Badgers will return to Green Bay to face Notre Dame in 2020. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)

The two teams won’t play until 2020, but Notre Dame and Wisconsin are finally back on each other’s schedules.

The two programs announced a two-game series on Monday with the teams squaring off at NFL stadiums in 2020 and 2021. On Oct. 3, 2020, the Irish and Badgers will meet at historic Lambeau Field in Green Bay, home of the Green Bay Packers. The following season, on Sept. 25, 2021, the two sides will play at Soldier Field in Chicago, home of the Chicago Bears.

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The 2020 matchup will mark the first times the programs meet on the gridiron since 1964. The 1964 game, a 31-7 Notre Dame win, was Ara Parseghian’s debut as Notre Dame head coach. Overall, the two sides have played 16 times, with Notre Dame holding a 8-6-2 series edge.

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Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez told the school’s athletics website that the series has been in the works for quite a while — dating back to October 2015. Things heated up after the success of Wisconsin’s win over LSU at Lambeau Field last year.

From UWBadgers.com:

The talks between UW and Notre Dame gained some traction after everyone saw what happened at Lambeau Field last September. The Badgers opened the season with a 16-14 victory over fifth-ranked LSU before a raucous crowd of 77,823. Alvarez said he got feedback from attendees who described it as “a Packer game on steroids.”

“It wasn’t long after the LSU game at Lambeau — that went so well and was such a good experience for our team — that we had conversations with (Packers president) Mark Murphy and the folks up there that, ‘Hey, we should do this again,'” Jeff Schmidt, UW’s Associate Athletic Director for Administration and Legal Affairs, said. “Things started to ramp up from there.”

Interestingly, the 2020 game in Green Bay will be a home game for Notre Dame while the Chicago contest will be a home game for the Badgers. The 2020 trip to Green Bay will be Notre Dame’s first-ever appearance at Lambeau. The Irish have played 12 times at Soldier Field, nine more times than Wisconsin.

Both games are part of Notre Dame’s “Shamrock Series,” which began in 2009 and has featured opponents like Miami, Arizona State and Boston College. The series began in San Antonio and has been played in New York (2010), Washington (2011), Chicago (2012), Dallas (2013), Indianapolis (2014) and Boston (2015) before returning to San Antonio in 2016. There will not be a Shamrock Series game in 2017.

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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!