NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Notre Dame and LSU will spend Christmas in Nashville and meet five days later in the Franklin American Mortgage Co. Music City Bowl.
The bowl features an annual meeting between ACC and SEC teams.
Both programs were contenders for the first-ever College Football Playoff this season before suffering costly defeats in the latter half of their campaigns.
Notre Dame (7-5) will appear as representative of the ACC, joining the league last season in all sports but football, which remains Independent, though an unofficial football affiliation remains.
"We're thrilled with the opportunity to face LSU, one of the preeminent programs in all of college football," Irish head coach Brian Kelly said. "When we worked with the ACC to fashion our agreement, part of the attraction for Notre Dame was the ability to provide our program with this type of matchup. In that vein we're excited to come to Nashville, to play in a bowl in which the University never before has participated and to play in a top-notch NFL venue."
Notre Dame ended their season with a 49-14 defeat to arch-rival USC at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
The Irish will make their fifth-straight bowl appearance and played for the national championship as recently as 2012, when they fell to Alabama.
No. 22 LSU (8-4) were ranked as highly as No. 8 this season and will play for their 15th-straight bowl.
Their ranking fell, however, after suffering a 17-0 decision to Arkansas and falling 41-7 to Auburn, a contest in which they failed to convert a single third-down. They fell to Alabama in an overtime matchup at Tiger Stadium.
"We are very excited to bring our football program and the great LSU fan base to Nashville to play Notre Dame in the Music City Bowl," LSU coach Les Miles said in a statement. "Notre Dame is a traditional football power and we are looking forward to renewing what has been a tremendous rivalry between the two programs through the years."
Music City Bowl president and chief executive Scott Ramsey approached both schools early in the bowl selection process, eager to capture two power programs as the prestige of the contest has risen in recent years.
Ole Miss and Georgia Tech met last December as the Rebels triumphed 25-17.
"It was a process that had a lot of different pressure points, a lot different from the process in the past," Ramsey said. "The athletics directors certainly were very active; every one of the bowls felt that they had what they felt was the best for their respective cities. And then you had to try to make the matchups happen and avoid the repeats."
Ramsey has served as bowl president and CEO since its inception in 1998.
LP Field, home of the Tennessee Titans, has hosted the contest since its construction in 1999. The first Music City Bowl was played at nearby Vanderbilt Stadium.
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