Among Morgan Burke's final acts as his time wound down as Purdue's resident curmudgeon and link to 1960s mentality was to allow the Notre Dame rivalry to slip away. Purdue and ND had played each other in football every year since 1946, amounting to (at the time) the fourth-longest consecutively-played rivalry game in all of college football. 

However, that came to an end after the 2014 tilt played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indy (attended by J and Bdowd and which Danny Etling probably doesn't remember due to the cheap shot he took that day). 

There were mixed feelings about the end of this rivalry game. On the one hand, some Purdue fans were fine with it, as being pretty reliably humbled by the Irish made for one of the most painful dates on the calendar each September. But for those of a certain generation, there wasn't any program that Boilermakers wanted to beat more than the golden domers. 

If you've been watching Purdue football for at least a couple of decades, it's probably not a stretch to say that among your favorite Purdue games of all time are either the 1997 Joe Tiller-led upset of the Irish in West Lafayette -- a game that announced to fans and players alike that the bad old days were over -- or the 2004 curb-stomping led by Kyle Orton in South Bend. That dismantling of the Charlie Weis-led Domers is personally the most satisfying win I think I've ever seen from Purdue football. Crushing Notre Dame, doing it in South Bend, having the arrogant Weis on the other sideline...it just could not have been any better. (In typical Purdue fashion, that team peaked shortly thereafter and it's been downhill ever since. But we'll always have 41-16.)

Back to Morgan Burke, though. When he let the commitment to playing one another slip away, there was a token set of games put on the calendar for 2019 (I believe) and 2021. However, there was no official agreement -- just a verbal commitment between ADs Burke and Swarbrick. I distinctly remember at the time assuring our readers/listeners that those games were unlikely to happen, as ND had no reason to maintain that light commitment. Admittedly, that game has more upside for Purdue than for Notre Dame and they would take a better opportunity if they got it. 

Enter Mike Bobinski, who has taken his job as Purdue AD seriously from day one (despite having graduated from Notre Dame). Bobinski and ND have recently agreed to renew the series for five consecutive years from '24 to '28, in addition to the '21 game staying on the docket. 

They will next play at Ross-Ade in 2024, 11 years after the last meeting at Purdue. So sit tight for seven years. And then get your hate ready again. It'll stay fresh, I promise.