Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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54 SEPT. 9, 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED O ne hundred years ago, under first- year Notre Dame athletics direc- tor/head coach Jesse Harper, the school's national scheduling approach in football took root. While blackballed by the local West- ern Conference (Big Ten) teams, Harper in 1913 went on a letter-writing cam- paign and was able to secure games at Penn State, St. Louis, Army and Texas — all on the road and within 27 days of each other in November. It didn't quite occur voluntarily, but it helped make Notre Dame's football pro- gram truly into "America's Team" while annually playing from coast to coast in- stead of limiting itself provincially. Just look at where the Fighting Irish play in 2013 and in the years to come, especially when it comes to covering the three most fertile recruiting areas of California, Texas and Florida, a priority among the staff: • Notre Dame plans to annually play in California at the end of the regular season, versus archrival USC in even- numbered years and Stanford in odd- numbered years. • For the second time in five years, Notre Dame's "Shamrock Series" outing will be held in Texas. The Lone Star State saw the Fighting Irish play Washington State in San Antonio in 2009, and this year Arizona State will face Notre Dame in Arlington. A four-game home-and- home series with the University of Texas also has been tentatively scheduled in 2015-16 and 2019-20 (editor's note: the 2019-20 games were canceled). • Starting in 2014, when it will be a partial member of the Atlantic Coast Conference in football, Notre Dame has the Atlantic seaboard and the Southern region covered. In 2014, its ACC ties will see it travel as far south as Tallahassee, Fla., to play the Florida State Seminoles, while also covering the Northeast cor- ridor with a game against the Syracuse Orange in East Rutherford, N.J. • In years to come against the ACC, there will be road games in Atlanta (Georgia Tech), South Carolina (Clem- son) and Florida (Miami, in addition to the Seminoles), along Tobacco Road (with the quartet of North Carolina, North Carolina State, Duke and Wake Forest), in Virginia (Virginia Tech and Virginia) and in major Eastern hubs such as Pittsburgh (Pitt) and Boston (Boston College), plus a game in Phila- delphia versus Temple. Last year, the Fighting Irish were in Norman, Okla., and in 2014 they will be in Tempe, Ariz., to face the Sun Devils. Notre Dame will be in Colorado this fall to challenge the Air Force Academy and in Landover, Md., in 2014 to play the Navy Midshipmen — a much shorter trek than in 2012 when it faced the Mids in Ireland. Of course, the Midwest always has had a strong base with the Big Ten, most notably long-standing rivals Purdue (every year since 1946) and Michigan State (every year but three since 1948). One missing piece has been the Southeastern Conference, though not for a lack of trying. The SEC generally is averse to leaving its home base, es- pecially early in the year. It wasn't un- til 1970 that Notre Dame faced an SEC team (LSU) in a home-and-home series, and in the decades that ensued it landed home-and-home series with the Tigers, Alabama, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and most recently in 2004-05 with Tennessee. The combination of Notre Dame's five ACC games per year and the SEC mov- ing to a nine-game conference schedule creates less flexibility in the future. The SEC will have less incentive to play a marquee opponent in one of its three non-league games. One way or another, the goal at Notre Dame is to have a broad national fla- vor with its scheduling while taking on marquee names — maybe almost to a fault. • When Penn State first joined the Big Ten in 1993, it had to cancel its 1993-94 games with Notre Dame. The Irish replaced the Nittany Lions with No. 1-ranked Florida State. • When Michigan, Michigan State and Stanford were temporarily off the Irish slate in 1995-96, the replacements were Ohio State, Texas and Washington. • When Michigan wasn't on the schedule in 2000-01, the replacement was No. 1 Nebraska. And now, with the Wolverines off the schedule after 2014, Texas is back in the mix. "We're trying to keep a national perspective on it," Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said of the schedul- ing approach. "We're also looking at areas where our Shamrock Series can be touted or played geographically, whether that be on the East Coast or in some areas that geographically make sense to us." With the College Football Playoff coming in 2014, Kelly believes that Notre Dame's national schedule will never hold it back from the conversation if it is fortunate to be in the discussion among those teams. Plus, Kelly is of the belief that the four-team playoff could become eight sooner rather than later. "They can look at our schedule and say, 'That's a deserving schedule,'" Kelly said. And it all started 100 years ago by cir- cumstance. ✦ Then first-year head football coach and athletics director Jesse Harper created the national sched- ule at Notre Dame in 1913. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS BEST OF THE FIFTH QUARTER ✦ LOU SOMOGYI ✦ SEPT. 16, 2013 National Scheduling Is More Alive Than Ever EDITOR'S NOTE: The late, great Lou Somogyi possessed an unmatched knowledge of Notre Dame football, and it was his mission in life to share it with others. Those of us at Blue & Gold Illustrated would like to continue to provide his wis- dom and unique perspective from his more than 37 years covering the Fighting Irish for this publication.