If there has ever been a year for Notre Dame’s football team to be literally “thrown off schedule,” 2020 is it. It already began when the regular season was supposed to commence in Ireland on Aug. 29 versus Navy.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, though, the decision by the two schools was made earlier this month that the game will be pushed up to either Sept. 5 or 6 — which had been a bye weekend for both teams — and played at Annapolis, Md. It will be the first time the rivals will meet on Navy’s campus in the uninterrupted series that began in 1927.
Meanwhile, last month the Pac-12 discussed playing an 11-game regular season against solely league members, meaning the Fighting Irish trip to USC Nov. 28 and Stanford’s journey to Notre Dame Oct. 10 could be in jeopardy. (Earlier this week there was conversation from The Wolverines' Chris Balas about whether Michigan would make the trip to Washington for its scheduled Sept. 5 opener.)
As of now that is merely speculation, but options and contingency plans must be explored in this era of uncertainty. Notre Dame vice president and director of athletics Jack Swarbrick is realistic about such a possibility, but also confident that the show would go on with the 2020 schedule and alternate options would be in place, although not for current public consumption.
“I’d be surprised if there wasn’t any conference that wouldn’t look at a conference-only alternative,” Swarbrick said in May. “If it goes that way we’ll be fine. We’ll be able to play a high-quality, full schedule, the same number of games other teams would play.”
“We’re hopeful,” said head coach Brian Kelly on Tuesday of squaring off against Stanford and USC this year. “We don’t have anything tangible. … Once we do, we’ll make it public because we want that to be binding.”
The 2020 Notre Dame slate features three neutral-site games in NFL Stadiums: Wake Forest on Sept. 26 in Charlotte, N.C.; Wisconsin on Oct. 10 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis.; and Georgia Tech on Nov. 14 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Part of the appeal to move to such venues is to help generate a larger audience, especially because Wake Forest’s on-campus BB&T Field holds only 31,500, while Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd Stadium/Grant Field has a capacity of 55,000.
However, in a year of vigilant “social distancing,” attendance numbers are less relevant than ever. This especially applies to the Shamrock Series meeting with Wisconsin. Plus, there would be no split gates with the NFL.
In a separate interview with NBCSN’s Mike Tirico, Kelly did reveal that Swarbrick has had preliminary dialogue with other schools, as he had with Navy, about possibly moving those games to on-campus home venues.
“Does it make sense to go to an NFL stadium that seats 60,000 70,000 80,000 — and have 25,000 or 30,000 in attendance that impacts the gate to the level where you can’t really afford to be there because it becomes a losing proposition?” Kelly asked rhetorically.
Meanwhile, on his team website, Green Bay Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy stated: "We have talked to representatives from both Notre Dame and Wisconsin, and they’ve confirmed that they are still planning to play the game at Lambeau Field.”
“Plan” and “do” are not always the same, as was learned earlier with the opener in Ireland.
One plan that Notre Dame does want to remain as a constant in the present and future is representation on the schedule with at least four of the Power Five conferences.
The ACC and Pac-12 are always accounted for, although as noted, the Pac-12 could get dicey this year.
Representing the Big Ten in 2020-21 would be Wisconsin, while Ohio State (2022-23), Purdue (2021, 2024-28) and Michigan State (2026-27) will be on future dockets in this decade.
Michigan (2018-19) and Northwestern (2014 and 2018) were more recent, but the Wolverines are not scheduled to return until 2033-34.
The SEC is becoming more present as well, with Georgia (2017 and 2019) and Vanderbilt (2018) the past three years. This decade the league so far includes Arkansas (2020 and 2025), Texas A&M (2024-25) and Alabama (2028-29).
That leaves the Big 12 as the void, although the league’s two top programs, Oklahoma (2012-13) and Texas (2015-16), did face off with the Irish in the previous decade.
The Mid-American Conference has had a representative on Notre Dame’s schedule every year since 2017, and will continue that pattern, with Western Michigan (2020), Toledo (2021), Marshall (2022) and Northern Illinois (2024) so far officially signed.
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