Making Notre Dame’s football calendar better for the foreseeable future

When the news came on Tuesday that Notre Dame Fighting Irish has a new series scheduled with the Florida Gators, many fans put it in the back pocket because of the decade-long wait, we will all have to see it being played. This is not uncommon, but the constant drumming of what happened to Coastal Carolina and the BYU Cougars during the 2020 season has made fans and members of the media look at programming in a totally different way.

I can’t say that enough … your dream of having TBD on your favorite school’s schedule is as likely to happen as I am to be running mate Selina Meyer in the next presidential election. Without delving too deeply into why everyone who thinks this is a great idea and can be done for the good of the sport is WRONG – it’s just a logistical nightmare that sports directors have no reason to create for themselves.

Moving…

So I started thinking about ways – real ways – for Notre Dame to improve its football schedule. Irish people rarely have a lot of trouble programming schools that they want to play in, so there are many different paths we can take, but I think I have found something doable. Something Jack can read and say, “That guy from Vowles knows exactly what to do.”

Twelve LFG games!

Again, we have to keep it realistic, and the Irish are very comfortable with their ACC agreement, as it benefits the entire athletic department (except hockey). We have seen years when the Irish have played 4 instead of 5 and 6 instead of 5. All of that is fine, and it can continue as long as it leaves the average. I would like to see less games with Wake Forest – but you pay for #goacc.

The biggest no-brainer on this lineup is, of course, the USC Trojans. The biggest and brightest “R” Trojans for Notre Dame, and that will never change. As successful as the Irish were in 2020, the season still seemed a little empty to me because there was no USC victory in the books – or a loss to cry about. I never want to have that feeling again.

Only three years ago, since 1987, Notre Dame and the Stanford Cardinal have not played (1995, 1996, 2020). This is a series that both school administrations want (just spitting here for Stanford) and everything is fine. Ending the season in California every year is a stupid concept in 2021, so I would press for a visit in September or October to Palo Alto. If Stanford doesn’t like it, offer it to the Washington Huskies. After all, Washington is 0-8 against Notre Dame at all times, and it’s fair to let them try and get at least one win against the Irish. Maybe after 30 years of running they will surprise you?

Now that we’re done with the easy part – let’s pour some gas into this fire and purify a blessed schedule. Two of the biggest problems with Notre Dame programming over the years are:

While it took a global pandemic to wipe both of them out of Notre Dame’s candidate list in 2020, these two things are probably persisting as herpes. So, instead of living in a beautiful paradise in fantasy land, I am forced to deal with this absurdity.

It’s time to do what Notre Dame should have done at least 25 years ago …

Make gyms part of a rotation of three schools – and just play those games as part of the Shamrock Series. In this way, every player who plays for four years at Notre Dame will have the honor of playing at each academy at least once during their time in South Bend. Army, Air Force and Navy in stadiums across the country with uniforms that may (or may not) make sense. It’s for you – it’s for America.

If I really did, I would make the Michigan State Spartans an annual game again. I’ve always placed Sparty just below USC in the Notre Dame Rivalry category, and it’s a shame that they’re not there to fight every year. Other people are more careless about Michigan carcasses, and idiots would complain about Purdue Boilermakers (total clowns).

We can’t make everyone happy every year, and we certainly don’t want to go back to our big 10 in September, so we’re going to have another rotation revolution. As in gyms, a three-team rotation should be used here – but no Shamrock nonsense will be needed – we have rivalry trophies for this special kind of fun. The Purdue game is Shillelagh, the Michigan game is the Megaphone, and now we have Michigan and the Big Jar of Hate (see the main image, please).

With three games remaining to the end, Notre Dame has a lot of flexibility in the way it finishes it. This is also where the game you programmed a decade ago can tip the balance of programming to the hard side – or as if you were stacking cupcakes on cupcakes.

The methodology is simple:

• 1 “cupcake”. This would normally be defined by a MAC school, but Notre Dame should also look to the Sun Belt and Mountain West for a little more flavor.
• 1 “mid-tier”. The most obvious choice here is an American Athletic Conference program, but they should also look at historically mediocre teams at Big 12. BYU Cougars is another example as an Independent.
• 1 “big dog”. The programming so far probably already has some really good opponents, but this is where Alabama Crimson Tide, Ohio State Buckeyes, Texas Longhorns and other high profile programs come in.

We are not done with you yet. Notre Dame has already proven itself to be a force in the Hawaiian islands when it comes to recruiting and continues to make that state one of its priorities – even with the difficulties involved when it comes to distance. Let’s make things a little easier for Notre Dame and provide a well-deserved incentive for the children of Hawaii.

Play Hawaii in Honolulu as a 13th game every three years. Like the other Midwest and Armed Forces trinities, this gives everyone on the team a chance to play in Hawaii at least once during their career at Notre Dame.

Here is a very quick summary of a Notre Dame football schedule for a 4-year cycle with these guidelines in place:

This was just a mental exercise that I was doing with myself the other night. I started thinking about schedules and how complex they really are. The notion that half or more FBS schools would leave a TBD date open to schedule in real time, as BYU and Coastal did, is absolutely absurd in the real world going forward. These schedules that I just created are 100 times more possible and 1000 times more likely than playing hot potatoes in the future. Logistics alone is crazy in a year without a pandemic. In addition, any scheduled real-time game is likely to have an effect on future schedules because SOMEONE will want a trip back to their home at some point.

I started this just to imagine a possible way forward with adjustments that I think would benefit the program – and I think I accomplished that goal. I’m sure many people will certainly see this in a very different way – and that’s okay – but I challenge you to create something as complicated as a 4-year cycle that makes sense and let’s see what you’ll find.