MKRob Sports

After a nearly two-decade break, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said the Fighting Irish is ”very interested” in playing Miami again in football, and the interest is mutual.

UM’s Kirby Hocutt initiated talks with Swarbrick, who became Notre Dame’s athletic director in July. No dates are set, but talks will resume in April, Swarbrick said by phone Monday.

NBC’s Notre Dame contract includes seven Irish home games and one prime-time neutral site game annually through 2015. ”You could do that,” Swarbrick said of the neutral site game, “plus do one home and home.”

UM and Notre Dame played annually (1971-1985 and 1987-1990) before the Irish discontinued the series. A Notre Dame student printed ”Catholics vs. Convicts” T-shirts before the epic 1988 game in South Bend, Ind., which Notre Dame won 31-30. UM won five of the past seven meetings and hostilities rose during and after Miami’s 58-7 win in 1985, when the Canes were accused of running up the score.

Playing Miami is appealing, Swarbrick said, because “they are two great academic institutions. We’re eager to play schools that share our values. There’s a lot of great history around the games.”

• The Canes will try to accommodate Kansas State’s request to escape games against UM in 2011 and 2012. UM has Florida A&M, at Ohio State, at Pittsburgh and USF in 2010, but only two nonconference games booked in 2011 (Ohio State, at USF) and 2012 (Cincinnati, USF).