One of the proud bullet points for fans of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish is never scheduling FCS teams — because that’s not what we do. While media members and certain schools go on and on about the “13th data point” and all that jazz, Notre Dame has been quite vocal about their 12 against any other’s 12.
Well, that’s changing.
In 2023 Notre Dame will host the Tennessee State Tigers in South Bend for a couple of firsts. This will be the first FCS school scheduled, but more importantly (and quite likely the bigger reason here) it will be the first time Notre Dame will have an HBCU on the schedule.