AUSTIN, Texas — Administrators at Texas and Notre Dame have been discussing reuniting on the football field for a long period of time, and now, two of the winningest programs in NCAA history have been able to work out a four-game series beginning in 2015, the schools announced on Thursday.

Texas ranks second on the NCAA all-time victory list (845) and Notre Dame is third (837).

“We have a wonderful relationship with Notre Dame, and (AD) Jack (Swarbrick) and I have become great friends,” said DeLoss Dodds, Texas men’s athletics director. “I really admire and respect him and am excited we were able to pull this off. Texas and Notre Dame have met in a lot of great games over the years and I was lucky enough to be here for the series we had with them in 1995 and ’96. Those games created a lot of interest and we’ve had a number of talks over the years to try to do it again. Football scheduling is always challenging so we’re happy that we found a place on both teams’ schedules to pull it off. When you match up two schools with so much pride, tradition and history, it’s an event that everyone enjoys being a part of and we’ll all really looking forward to.”

“We’re thrilled to be able to renew the football relationship between Notre Dame and Texas,” said Jack Swarbrick, Notre Dame athletics director. “History already suggests that this has been an intersectional rivalry loaded with memorable moments, and I expect fans of both institutions will eagerly look forward to these matchups on the respective campuses. We’ve been looking at the prospect of putting together these matchups for some time, and we hope these games may lead to further conversations about the prospect of additional contests, potentially in other sports as well as football.”

The series will kickoff with Texas traveling to South Bend on Sept. 5, 2015. Notre Dame is slated to head to Austin on Sept. 3, 2016, and again on Aug. 31, 2019. The Longhorns return to South Bend on Sept. 12, 2020.

“We are so excited we were able to schedule a four-game series with Notre Dame,” Texas Coach Mack Brown said. “I love college football history and nobody has more historical programs than Texas and Notre Dame. The renewal of this rivalry should be a lot of fun to be a part of and something that college football fans across the country can really enjoy.”

“Starting a series with the Texas Longhorns is great not just for Notre Dame, but college football, and we couldn’t be happier about it,” said Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly. “When I look at the job Coach Brown has done at Texas in reviving a once proud tradition, I see many parallels to what our staff plans to do at Notre Dame.

“The addition of Texas to our future schedules is just another example of the type of high-profile programs we plan on playing as an independent. We look forward to embracing our unique status within college football and continuing to schedule games against similar programs down the road.”

UT and Notre Dame have met 10 times in football dating back to 1913 with the Irish winning eight of those contests. The two traditional football powers last met in 1996 in Austin, completing a home-and-home series that started in South Bend in 1995.

Notre Dame has won the last four meetings, but the Horns’ last victory over the Irish came in UT’s National Championship season in 1969. That year, No. 1 Texas knocked off No. 9 Notre Dame, 21-17, in one of the most memorable Cotton Bowl games ever. The No. 6 Irish came back the next season to knock off the No. 1 Horns, who had just been named 1970 National Champions by UPI, 24-11, in the Cotton Bowl. No. 5 Notre Dame defeated the No. 1 Longhorns again, 38-10, in the 1977 Cotton Bowl to prevent UT from claiming its fourth national title.

Notre Dame won the series’ first two meetings in Austin in 1913 (30-7) and 1915 (36-7) before Texas registered a 7-6 victory in South Bend in 1934. The Irish claimed both ends of a home-and-home series in 1952 and 1954 before the historic Cotton Bowl contest.