ND only plays four true road games next year. We can afford to play another one. So why not make the neutral site game somewhat challenging?
Until we beat Syracuse, Connecticut, Navy, et al on a regular basis again, why schedule the Florida's?
Of course Florida flat out, does NOT want to play ND at a neutral site. (Nor do they want ND on a home and home basis. Florida refuses to travel outside the South.) If you're remotely familiar with Florida football history you'd know that the Gators were one of the first to overload there schedule with home games back in the early 90's. Spurrier pumped up the schedule with Div AA teams like The Citadel. The SEC jumped onto that scheduling concept under Commissioner Roy Kramer back also in the early 90's when a heavy dose of Southeast nowhere, and Northwest Nobodies.
Notre Dame has never played a Div AA team since that classification was created by the NCAA and is now only one of 4 teams that hasn't. The last time ND did play a team of that caliber was back in the 1930's!
And you want to complain about a bona fide ACC opponent. Maryland's won 9 ACC Championship and one National Championship. Friedgen has struggle the past few seasons but his is no Cal Poly SLO. Last year UMD was 2-10 including a 2 pt loss to BC, a 3pt loss to FSU, 4 pt loss to Duke, and 7 points to USC.
The list of potential neutral site opponents is limited due to Conference TV rights. When the first couple of opponents ND had discussions with were interested but the Conference/TV network nixed the matchups.
