The Optimal Notre Dame Scheduling Model

[texbender]

there was some talk of a game vs Navy in San Diego but maybe that was a Navy home game?

 

[Buster Bluth]

Isn't the Shamrock vs Navy in Jacksonville?

That's 2016, a Navy home game.

there was some talk of a game vs Navy in San Diego but maybe that was a Navy home game?

That's 2018, also a Navy home game.

 

[Cackalacky]

Michigan St. Outside of Washington St, ASU, and Maryland. The SS has been a rival or a team with a history vs ND.

 

[stlnd01]

Personally, I'd be fine not playing a Shamrock game every year.
Miami in Chicago, ASU in Dallas, those were cool. Yankee Stadium and Fenway? OK I guess. But what's the point of playing Purdue in Indianapolis or Army in San Antonio next year? Those games barely sell out and apparently NBC won't even televise them now that we're playing a legit night game every year.
I like the idea of getting around the country but we've got to line up decent opponents. Otherwise we're just giving up a home game. For what?

 

[stlnd01]

I will bet that same vbuck it's Wake Forest in Charlotte.

That matchup will really bring all the boys to the yard.

 

[Crazy Balki]

I also would like NC State in the GA Dome.

 

[Old Man Mike]

..... my unpopular opinion: that 2017 schedule looks WAY too hard to plow through with even just one loss to me. We better have an eight team playoff by then.

.....USC, Stanford, UNC, Georgia, Michigan State, Navy, Miami --- give me a break, literally.

 

[gkIrish]

..... my unpopular opinion: that 2017 schedule looks WAY too hard to plow through with even just one loss to me. We better have an eight team playoff by then.

.....USC, Stanford, UNC, Georgia, Michigan State, Navy, Miami --- give me a break, literally.

UNC, Navy, and Stanford will hopefully come back down to earth by then. Miami, USC and Georgia will all be in year 2 of a new coaching regime (assuming Richt is fired) so they may not be "elite" again by then. So ideally we are looking at MSU and three other good teams plus a bunch of average teams.

Then again all of those teams could be ranked and we are screwed.

 

[ickythump1225]

It's way too far out to get worried about the 2017 schedule. Schedules that seem like crucibles can become "easy" in retrospect and vice versa.

 

[Buster Bluth]

Kelly said he would like to see Lambeau Field in the future. Please please please.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[gkIrish]

Posted this in another thread but it's probably better discussed here. What does everyone think about playing two Big 12 teams a year with the 2nd game always being during conference championship week? We would play all 10 teams every 5 years. The optimal schedule would be something like this:

UMass
TCU
Western Michigan
@Virginia Tech
BYE
Syracuse
USC
@Louisville
Navy
BYE
@ NC State
Duke (Shamrock Series)
@ Stanford
@ Iowa St. (during conf. champ week)

I see 4 teams that in any given year would likely produce 2 elite opponents (VaTech, USC, TCU, Stanford); 5 teams that are generally average (Syracuse, Louisville, Duke, Iowa St., NC State) and 3 generally below average teams (UMass, Western Michigan, Navy) Sounds about right to me?

 

[BeauBenken]

Someone already said that we aren't even allowed to play during conference week...definitely not with a team in a conference, I would think.

 

[ND NYC]

how many additional weeks to the season can we add, while our kids are actually studying for school, and all the other d1 athletes are "playing school."

knute, leahy, ara all played 9-10 max games an entire season...

 

[edgesofsanity]

Someone already said that we aren't even allowed to play during conference week...definitely not with a team in a conference, I would think.

Not sure of the validity on that. I haven't been able to find a source for not being allowed to play during conference week (plenty of info out there for not having a 13th game outside of @Hawaii).

I do know that Texas had 2 bye weeks in both 2014 and 2015; and that this year they're playing Baylor on the championship weekend. So evidently there's a way to make it work, though we'd forego our annual finish in California.

I think Notre Dame the brand could handle a second bye week, but how about the players would be my question. Exams this year are Dec 14-18th; so they'd be finishing up this theoretical week on the 4th, travel back on the 5th and have to get ready for finals in just 9 days.

 

[BobbyMac]

Kelly said he would like to see Lambeau Field in the future. Please please please.

If only the Milwaukee Jesuits played fall ball...

 

[Legacy]

..... my unpopular opinion: that 2017 schedule looks WAY too hard to plow through with even just one loss to me. We better have an eight team playoff by then.

.....USC, Stanford, UNC, Georgia, Michigan State, Navy, Miami --- give me a break, literally.

Swarbrick IMO starts with our commitments including our five ACC games and annual rivalry games - USC, Navy and Stanford. That provides him with two Pac-12 games. That amounts to our defacto "conference". He mixes in a Shamrock Game in a large pro stadium, preferably in November that has to be a one-and-done game.

He fits in a national P5 power for home-and-home games, which usually has to be in September (Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Michigan State, Ohio State, Texas A&M) from the other three P5 conferences. For these games he prefers teams whose fanbase has demonstrated a respect for ND for a good ND fan away game experience. He prefers teams with large home stadiums.

For the last two games, in addition to the respect factor, he will give preference to private universities (Northwestern, Army, BYU) and, if possible, teams that hired a ND coach for a home game in SB (UMass, Miami (O), New Mexico) or a historic rival like Purdue, which gives him another B10 game and an in-state game -as did the Shamrock series game in Indy and the Ball State game. He also wants a somewhat lighter team for these two games. Depending on the ACC home vs away games he needs another home game in alternate years.

Those years where we play a tougher ACC schedule and the national power games can't be spread out like 2017 with Michigan State and Georgia look pretty severe. Geographic coverage for recruiting, fanbase proximity and exposure factors help. Temple turned out tougher than when initially scheduled.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football Schedules | Future

 

[Legacy]

Scheduled Games in 2015 - Ticket price demand

Scheduled Games in 2015 - Ticket price demand

Notre Dame had three of the top five most expensive tickets in 2015 in a Forbes preseason analysis.

Three of the five most expensive games right now will feature Notre Dame, two in South Bend.

• Boston College vs. Notre Dame (Fenway Park; Boston, Mass.): $919.90 (1st)

• Texas at Notre Dame: $829.29 (2nd)

• USC at Notre Dame: $590.81 (5th)

The average ticket price of the 2015 National Championship between Clemson and Alabama was $675. The average ticket price of the 2012 NC with ND and Alabama was $1,640.

The Clemson-ND game was the most expensive ticket price for all events ever in South Carolina history.

From a ticket price standpoint, this scheduling model seems to be working.

 

[Blaise]

Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the College Football Playoff X factor

Great article talking about ND being the wild card now with only school without a potential championship game... I love how they schedule... Beat MSU, Beat Texas... but good teams from other divisions and 11-1 should get you in most years

 

[wizards8507]

Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the College Football Playoff X factor

Great article talking about ND being the wild card now with only school without a potential championship game... I love how they schedule... Beat MSU, Beat Texas... but good teams from other divisions and 11-1 should get you in most years

I really like Brian Kelly talking tough against the other conferences. An undefeated conference champion isn't 13-0, they're 12-0 with a glorified bye week.

 

[Blaise]

I really like Brian Kelly talking tough against the other conferences. An undefeated conference champion isn't 13-0, they're 12-0 with a glorified bye week.

Yeah... I hate the PC game... Say what you mean.. I know it bugs a lot of Power 5 teams that SEC plays "Bye teams"... It is redic... glad Kelly called them out for it

 

[ACamp1900]

A lot of these schools have more than one game against a complete "bye week' team... just sayin

 

[wizards8507]

A lot of these schools have more than one game against a complete "bye week' team... just sayin

I don't mind one or two games against non-power conferences. I'll save my outrage for FCS.

 

[ACamp1900]

I don't mind one or two games against non-power conferences. I'll save my outrage for FCS.

Not all non-powers are alike though, and some FCS teams are actually better, imo, than some non power D1s...

 

[wizards8507]

Not all non-powers are alike though, and some FCS teams are actually better, imo, than some non power D1s...

Understood, but you have to draw the line somewhere and it's hard to make blanket statements year-over-year beyond "FCS is a completely different league". We weren't intending on stretching ourselves when we scheduled Temple, but they turned out to be pretty decent.

 

[NDgradstudent]

Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the College Football Playoff X factor

Great article talking about ND being the wild card now with only school without a potential championship game... I love how they schedule... Beat MSU, Beat Texas... but good teams from other divisions and 11-1 should get you in most years

8 team playoff
8 team playoff
8 team playoff
8 team playoff
8 team playoff

 

[gkIrish]

I think the committee has made it clear:

1) # of losses
2) quality of wins
3) conference championships help, but aren't more important than #1 and #2

ND needs to stop worrying about scheduling elite teams all over the schedule and just worry about going 12-0 or 11-1 against a decent schedule. Most years, USC and Stanford alone + one other good team will be enough.

 

[dad4aa]

I think the committee has made it clear:

1) # of losses
2) quality of wins
3) conference championships help, but aren't more important than #1 and #2

ND needs to stop worrying about scheduling elite teams all over the schedule and just worry about going 12-0 or 11-1 against a decent schedule. Most years, USC and Stanford alone + one other good team will be enough.

Totally agree with this. This year's CFP really helped ND's chances for the future.

 

[GATTACA!]

I think the committee has made it clear:

1) # of losses
2) quality of wins
3) conference championships help, but aren't more important than #1 and #2

ND needs to stop worrying about scheduling elite teams all over the schedule and just worry about going 12-0 or 11-1 against a decent schedule. Most years, USC and Stanford alone + one other good team will be enough.

So basically this year's schedule.

 

[irishtrain]

This years play off finally put to bed the issue of Notre Dame needs to be in a conference-it did no good for a couple of schools and one team didn't even have to compete for its conference championship. But the elephant in the room is a #65 power rated football team. And #65 may be generous. You know the program is in trouble when the subject is a manageable schedule and you still lose 8 games. The schedule is not the issue, the issue is the culture of the football team and its lack of toughness and talent compared to who they are playing. This university doesn't want it to be any different than it is now but still wants 10 wins a year-it aint happening. I'm on board for no changes if that's what they want but if they stay this course join the MAC. I'd actually be ok with that tact of joining a lesser conference or really lowering the schedule to Vandy,Northwestern,Duke,Stanford,Wake,Temple,BC,Rice,Iowa State,Minnesota etc. You could still take you punishment against southern cal and Navy for old time sake and win 8/9/10 games a year. Notre Dame has to come to grips with the fact that it doesn't seem like they can do it any other way. There will be people who will say this is bull%$#@ and what about last year and 2012-my answer to that is yeh it happened and do you really think this program has progressed and taken advantage of that or has it gone backwards. I think we know the answer to that and my idea of the reason why is that a very good coach cant even do it under this culture that he's presented with. And Brian Kelly is a very good coach.

 

[gkIrish]

So basically this year's schedule.

Well I would argue this year was not set up well at all. Michigan State was complete overkill. They weren't actually good but no one would have predicted that when we scheduled them. Miami and Virginia Tech were big enough names that along with Stanford and USC we would have easily gotten in if undefeated. Why play Michigan St. instead of say Toledo? The committee is just looking for teams that don't play a Western Michigan schedule. Oklahoma is a perfect example of shooting themselves in the foot. Played 2 tough OOC games and gained nothing for it. Had they scheduled Tulsa and Arizona or something, they would have been an undefeated playoff team right now. End of story.