Notre Dame will temporarily end it’s football rivalry with Michigan dating back to 1887.

Notre Dame will not play Michigan in football for the 2015-2017 seasons. Though a contract was signed by the schools in 2007 extending their annual match up to 2031, the Fighting Irish exercised an option in the agreement  to suspend play for next three years against the Wolverines .

This decision was made known in a letter from Notre Dame AD John Swarbrick handed to Michigan AD David Brandon prior to last week’s game played between the schools that was obtained by the AP.

This came as a surprise to the Wolverines whose relationship with the school dates back to the very beginning of Notre Dame Football and who have faced the Fighting Irish regularly since 1978.

In a press release Branton commented  "The decision to cancel games…was Notre Dame's and not ours. "We value our annual rivalry with Notre Dame but will have to see what the future holds for any continuation of the series. This cancellation presents new scheduling opportunities for our program and provides a chance to create some new rivalries."

Michigan is an unfortunate casualty of Notre Dame’s move this month to the ACC earlier this month. Per their terms of joining the conference the Fighting Irish football program will still remain independent but is committed to playing five teams a year from the ACC.

Notre Dame will fill the remainder of its schedule with traditional rivals including Navy as well schools on the West Coast (Stanford, USC) This leaves Big Ten schools on the outs including Michigan State and Purdue.

Fans of the Michigan and Notre Dame rivalry should not fret as it is quite possible that the two Football powerhouses could continuing playing each other as soon as the 2020 season.