Notre Dame schedules Akron for 2015

[Irishnuke]

geez guys... count the numbers. None of those are a twelve game list except 2013. Where are these schedules coming from?? What's the factual basis??

The internet.

 

[GoldenIsThyFame]

geez guys... count the numbers. None of those are a twelve game list except 2013. Where are these schedules coming from?? What's the factual basis??

Mike these are only the games that are currently scheduled. Obviously there are dates and games missing in between once you get past 2013. The ones that have dates are confirmed via press releases or contracts terms with teams.

 

[Old Man Mike]

fine... I wonder why there's so much "definitive talk" on this thread then of our strength of schedule and who is or is not on it if we in fact don't know?? Just need something to speculate about until saturday, I guess. By the way, GITF, your list, which seems more believable, does not equate with the earlier one, which had listings of 13 or 14 game schedules and was way out there in my thinking.

by the earlier one, I mean that I went to the noted website and found schedules there for us which seemed preposterous and highly speculative and certainly in no way ND-official.

 

[Irish4Life09]

God, I hate reading about how "we need to soften the schedule to ever compete" or, "other teams are doing it". If that's what people want then we should just join a damn conferance and be done with it. I have no desire to see them schedule Akron, or Syracuse for that matter.

It is almost necessary is today's game to need the first week be a cupcake.Things and mistakes can happen,like week1 against USF,that you can work on and get out of the way,and won't penalize you as much.With USF we were playing a pretty decent team,that was talented enough to take advantage of our mistakes.I'm all for this scheduling.

 

[Veer option]

I am shocked that people on this forum have the audacity to complain about soft schedules even going as far as to discount future opponents. Until Notre Dame has proven it can beat teams that it should be mopping the floor with, every team on future schedules should be seen as a hurdle and not a speed bump.

 

[TerryTate]

After this season, do you guys really care if Akron or Temple is the opening game?

 

[Irish Green]

Schedule the South Carolina Gamecocks...at South Carolina, that way I can really have a good time getting on all my Gamecock friends...and only drive 1.5 hours to see the IRISH play!

 

[Wolverine1997]

Michigan scheduled akron for 2013 as well.

I don't know if you guys discussed this, but in 2014 appalachian state is coming back for a rematch. They most likely will move up to FBS in 2012 or '13. Pumped for that game just to see Michigan beat the **** out of them even though it's not the same team as they were in 07.

I'm kind of disappointed in Michigan's scheduling. Aside from the game against alabama next year at Jerryworld, the next "big time" opponent scheduled currently is a return game at conneticut in 2013. I wish we'd take the aggressive path like ND and schedule the oklahoma, texas and all those guys.

And I swear if I see one more flippin' FCS school on the schedule...

 

[Yes]

What's so bad about a few easy games? I still see Texas, USC, and Michigan on that schedule. That's a whole lot more than someone like Boise State can claim, and they've done alright...

 

[irishtrinity]

look at Arkansas they play three straight cupcakes every yr....

1. build up your team by picking on 3 straight FCS teams..

2. keep your preseason rankings 4 weeks at least..

i listen to the local radio shows and they were pissed they can't sell out a 50,000 stadium lol...
ND has standards and no conference so we schedule the hardest schedule every yr... Go Irish..

 

[irishtrinity]

What's so bad about a few easy games? I still see Texas, USC, and Michigan on that schedule. That's a whole lot more than someone like Boise State can claim, and they've done alright...

nothing every huge CFB team does it not us ND is not in a conference so they think we need the schedule to boost to 1 or 2... i wish we could have 2 or 1 a yr..

 

[PJWhitfield]

I wish Notre Dame would schedule I.U. as an early season warmup. There's a lot of fan interest when they do.

 

[BGIF]

I wish Notre Dame would schedule I.U. as an early season warmup. There's a lot of fan interest when they do.

It was IU's decision to stop playing back in the 50's. They claimed their Big 10 Schedule was too tough to also play ND. I think there's only been one game since.

Not a lot of interest from ND's point of view either. ND already has an annual instate game with PU. ND would rather use the other date to play a game where the recruiting pool is larger, such as FL, CA, TX or NY metro area.

 

[BGIF]

God, I hate reading about how "we need to soften the schedule to ever compete" or, "other teams are doing it". If that's what people want then we should just join a damn conferance and be done with it. I have no desire to see them schedule Akron, or Syracuse for that matter.

Did you ever look at the schedules Rockne and Parshegian had? Check 'em out. Rock's schedule was loaded with Lombard's, Wabash's, Beloit's, Haskell's, Valpo's, etc. Teams that today are Div 1aa, Div II or Div III. Ara was something like 14-10-3 against ranked teams. In 11 seasons that's an average of 2.45 ranked opponents/season. But that included bowl opponents.

Leahy played some tough schedules but during his undefeated run (36-0-2) from '46 -'49 he only faced 9 ranked teams. That's 2.25 ranked opponents/season (ND didn't go to bowls back then). During that 4 year span ND never faced a ranked team two weeks in a row. In '48 a 9-0-1 season ND only faced 1 ranked opponent.

"Tough schedules" became the norm during Devine's 2nd season, 1976 (long before the NBC contract). Dan faced 27 ranked teams in 6 years including bowls. But in the first year he only faced one ranked opponent. Thus he had 26 ranked opponents in only 5 years for an 5.2 ranked opponents/season average.

Faust faced 22 ranked teams in 5 seasons (2 in bowls) for an average of 4.4 ranked teams/season. Faust was no Parshegian but he most likely would have had a much better record playing Rockne, Leahy (post WW II) or Parshegian typical schedules.


Bear Bryant, Joe Pa, Bobby Bowden, Bob Devaney, Tom Osborne, and Barry Switzer all made careers on "smart scheduling". Usually easy openers, a steady diet of cannon fodder, rarely playing two tough opponents in a row and if they did, they had an open date in between to heal the walking wounded.

 

[BGIF]

I am shocked that people on this forum have the audacity to complain about soft schedules even going as far as to discount future opponents. Until Notre Dame has proven it can beat teams that it should be mopping the floor with, every team on future schedules should be seen as a hurdle and not a speed bump.

^

Syracuse, Navy, AF, Tulsa ... . Or even the more formidable but not powerhouse foes like BC and MSU. MSU has only ended up ranked 4 times in the past 20 years.

Likewise until ND can rip off a string of victories longer than 4, the term "trap game" should be dropped. We haven't been good enough to be "trapped".

 

[ShamrockOnHelmet]

It was IU's decision to stop playing back in the 50's. They claimed their Big 10 Schedule was too tough to also play ND. I think there's only been one game since.

Not a lot of interest from ND's point of view either. ND already has an annual instate game with PU. ND would rather use the other date to play a game where the recruiting pool is larger, such as FL, CA, TX or NY metro area.

I vaguely recall two games, one in Indy and one in South Bend. I'd personally like to see it (having a graduate degree from IU) but it doesn't really do anything for ND, what with Purdue already on the schedule. I would like to see the Irish play a barnstorming game at Lucas Oil Stadium, though. Its such a great facility. Hell, IU and Ball State got 40,000 in there this year. ND and I dunno, Tennessee would sell that place out in a heartbeat.

 

[BGIF]

I vaguely recall two games, one in Indy and one in South Bend. I'd personally like to see it (having a graduate degree from IU) but it doesn't really do anything for ND, what with Purdue already on the schedule. I would like to see the Irish play a barnstorming game at Lucas Oil Stadium, though. Its such a great facility. Hell, IU and Ball State got 40,000 in there this year. ND and I dunno, Tennessee would sell that place out in a heartbeat.

ND dominates the series 23-5-1 winning 20 of the last 21 games. The last two games were:

09-27-1958 18 South Bend, IN 0
09-07-1991 49 South Bend, IN 27

Recalling ND/IU in Indianapolis would have to be vague. They've only played there 5 times: 1906, 1908, 1919, 1920, and 1921.


IU and Ball St played in Indianapolis two weeks ago before 40K. That appears to be a first. Of the 5 games they've played in the past 14 years, 4 were at 53K seat Memorial Stadium and only 1 was at 22K seat Scheumann Stadium. For Ball St, Lucas makes sense although it sounds like they got about the same attendance as a home game sellout. Doesn't appear IU got a great turnout either.

While Lucas Oil Stadium may be a great facility why would ND want to play instate to a neutral site before 30K ND fans (split seating with IU) when they could play at home before 80K? The non-revenue sports at UND would lose the funding that $2-5 million in football revenue from a home football game would have provided.


Alabama and Auburn used to play at Legion Field in Birmingham on an annual basis in The Iron Bowl. They split the tickets 50-50 and played before sellout crowds regardless of the season's record because it was an intense intrastate rivalry. ND/IU isn't.

After Auburn expanded their stadium they pulled out of Birmingham when they were home team because the revenue (tickets, parking, concessions plus the impact on the local economy) was so much greater for a home game. A few years later when Bama expanded their stadium they also moved the game from Birmingham when they were home team for the additional revenue.

Yesm UND and Tennessee would sell out Lucas but it would be a sellout in South Bend or Knoxville as well before bigger crowds.

I don't see a single advantage to ND playing in Indianapolis.

 

[ShamrockOnHelmet]

Recalling ND/IU in Indianapolis would have to be vague. They've only played there 5 times: 1906, 1908, 1919, 1920, and 1921.

You're probably right, I might have been thinking of the Purdue game in Indy.

And, I wasn't really trying to debate the fiscal merits of the barnstoming games in Indy, just daydreaming. We can still do that on message boards, right?