Will Notre Dame’s Home-Field Advantage Continue?
In the final two home football games of 2019, the University of Notre Dame officially declared that its streak of 273 straight “sellout” games (dating back to Thanksgiving Day 1973) had ended.
In a venue with a current capacity listed at 77,622, only 74,080 were counted for the 52-20 victory versus Navy last Nov. 16. A week later in the 40-7 Senior Day conquest of Boston College, the number in attendance versus the Eagles was given at 71,827.
In reality, the streak had been finagled, albeit legally, through the years with some creativity to keep it alive. Finally, it wasn’t worth it anymore.
This year it would have ended no matter what.
Because of COVID-19, the school announced numerous protocols for the 2020 campaign, several of which are mandated in conjunction with the Atlantic Coast Conference.
• Attendance will not go beyond 20 percent capacity, which calculates out to 15,525 maximum for the official 77,622 seats. They are limited to students, faculty/staff and families of the home and visiting school.
• Masks will be required in the stadium along with social distancing.
• No tailgating or even open containers permitted on the campus.
• Mobile tickets instead of paper tickets, and even game programs will be exclusively digital.
• Per ACC regulations, no marching band is permitted on the field, but it is allowed in the stands, again with proper social distancing (same with cheerleaders).
• Artificial crowd noise will be allowed to be piped in, but not at a decibel level that doesn’t allow the opposition to communicate on the field. The officiating crew will render what might be classified as too loud.
Consequently, it prompts the inquiry on whether any team will have a true home-field advantage, such as the one Georgia had in its 23-17 win versus Notre Dame on Sept. 21, 2019. A record and raucous Sanford Stadium crowd of 93,246 played a role, including about a half-dozen motion penalties on the Irish while not having a silent count on snaps in place.
Notre Dame has built its own home-field advantage the past three years. Since the opening of Notre Dame Stadium 90 years ago in 1930 (Knute Rockne’s final season), the current 18-game winning streak — the last five in 2017, all six in 2018 and all seven in 2019 — is behind only the 28 straight from 1942-50 and the 19 in a row from 1987-90.
Notre Dame will be heavily favored to move into the No. 2 spot this month when it hosts three-touchdown underdog Duke Sept. 12 and then South Florida, which was 4-8 last season, Sept. 19.
Last year marked the fourth time in the last eight years the Fighting Irish finished unbeaten at home, joining the 2012, 2015 and 2018 teams.
To put that into context, consider that in the 22 years from 1990-2011, Notre Dame was unblemished at home only once: 6-0 in 1998 under head coach Bob Davie.
The lone defeat at home since the opening of the Campus Crossroads project in 2017, which included a Jumbotron on the south end of the structure, was a 20-19 defeat to Georgia in the second contest of 2017. The Bulldogs went on to play for the national title that season.
“It has gotten better and better in my time here in terms of just the support that we have, as our students are great at the games, a part of it,” head coach Brian Kelly said before the start of the 2019 campaign. “Certainly the video graphics, the Jumbotron, just all of those things add to the game-day experience that we're feeling.”
That experience will hardly be the same this year, but that doesn’t mean a home-field advantage will be absent.
“You still have to get on a plane, come to South Bend and come into our stadium — regardless of if there are 79,000 or 18,000,” Kelly noted earlier this week. “Our students are going to provide that and what they don’t provide, we're going to make sure that everybody [knows] what that stadium sounds like when Notre Dame is full.
“There are many, many, many games that have been played in there where we have provided a home-field advantage. Maybe we’ll show you a play or two that reminds you of what it sounds like, and I think our students will feed off of that. I’m pretty confident we’ll be able to put together an exciting atmosphere.”
Possibly windy or 30-degree temperatures for the Nov. 7 night game versus preseason No. 1 Clemson might provide a psychological boost, although Notre Dame also hasn’t been always at its best in adverse conditions (see Michigan, 2019).
Ultimately, nothing generates energy or zeal more than sound, crisp execution on the field.
“At the end of the day, you have to play exciting football and you've got to play good football to get everybody enthusiastic,” Kelly said before the start of last season. “So it is our job to put a great product on the field, one that’s exciting, one that people want to see, and our players recognize that.”
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