How about Bama in New Orleans in 2012?
Most, if not all, of you are aware than ND has an off site home game scheduled with Baylor in New Orleans in 2012. Few of you, if any, are also aware that Bama plays Tulane in New Orleans in 2012.
ND vs Baylor? Lame. Bama vs Tulane? Lame. Bama vs ND In New Orleans!? Now we're talking! Let Baylor play Tulane. Give us Bama vs. ND. All it would take is a buyout of Baylor by ND, a buyout of Tulane by Bama, and NBC to sweeten the pot to ND because Bama would require a 50-50 ticket split neutral site game rather than a ND off site home game.
The problem isn't ND. It's the SEC's contract for TV coverage and NBC. Most if not all Conference/TV Media contracts restrict conference members from playing a game in their conference territory unless it's shown on their network. ND's neutral games are shown on NBC where there is national coverage not just regional coverage.
When ND started putting the neutral site games together a couple of schools that initially expressed interest had to back out when their Conference or Media provider pointed out their Conference TV restrictions.
Baylor was a secondary consideration after SEC teams said they couldn't play in New Orleans on NBC. The thought was Baylor is not an SEC team so they wouldn't face a TV conflict playing in SEC land and woudn't come under their conference restricitions as they were out of their conference's territory. Washington St was the first choice to play in Austin last year. The initial plan was a Texas/Big 12 Team but the Big 12 had the same conference territorial TV conflict.
Swapping Baylor for Bama isn't viable because of TV complications. Playing Bama in Dallas could be done. Likewise playing Miami or FSU in New Orleans could be done as it's outside the ACC territory. Those two couldn't play ND in Atlanta as Georgia Tech is an ACC school and thus the ACC would demand TV rights iin Atlanta due to their contract.
BTW, ND and Bama had a home and home scheduled for '05 - '06 or '06 -'07. When the NCAA investigated and sanctioned Bama over Means, Bama AD Mal Moore contacted ND and asked to let out of the contract due to concerns over loss scholarships weakening the team. ND said OK. Moore has an excellant relationship with ND. Many Bama (and ND fans) aren't aware that Moore was an assistant coach at ND under Lou Holtz.
The Bama ND games of the past have generally been legendary games. I think a home and home is more likely to happen than ND/Bama at a neutral site.