Notre Dame to pay Texas $150,000 after canceling two games

Notre Dame's football program will pay Texas $150,000 after it canceled two upcoming games between the schools in 2019 and 2020.

The news comes just hours after Notre Dame announced new dates against Texas A&M in 2024 and 2025. 

That fee would have grown to $500,000 if the notice of cancellation was received “more than one year but less than two years” from the date of the canceled game and $1 million if received “one year or less” from the date of the canceled game, as reported by FBSchedules, via an open records request.

The two schools announced the four-game, home-and-home series in 2010. Notre Dame is set to host the Longhorns on Sept. 5, 2015 while Texas will host Notre Dame on Sept. 3, 2016. The canceled dates included a game in Austin on Aug. 31, 2019 and a game in Notre Dame on Sept. 12, 2020.

The cancellation apparently stems from Notre Dame not having enough room on its schedule for Texas. 

"With five ACC games, USC and Navy, plus Georgia and Stanford on the road, the Irish no longer had room on their slate to play a road game at Texas," wrote FBSchedules. 

The cancellation leaves Texas with no announced non-conference opponents in 2019 and 2020. Texas A&M also has no non-conference opponents scheduled.

In June, Notre Dame's senior associate athletic director for media and broadcast relations John Heisler told the South Bend Tribune that the Irish were trying to move the games rather than cancel.

“We’re hopeful that we can move those games somewhere down the road into the next decade,” Heisler said at the time. “We’re trying to create as much variety as we possibly can and let our fans see as many teams as they can.”