Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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4 AUGUST 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED A proven coaching staff, a top-10 preseason ranking, an experi- enced quarterback, a stellar defense — there's a lot to get excited about when mea- suring the chances of Notre Dame making the 12-team playoff in 2024. Add to that list of pre- season positives a sched- ule in which the Irish could be favored in all 12 games, and anything short of a playoff run this sea- son must be considered a disappointment. W h i l e a n o t h e r s o f t Notre Dame schedule paves a smooth playoff path, is this 2024 slate of games really what the Irish faithful want or deserve? It's understood that schedules are of- ten built years in advance and circum- stances beyond anyone's control can change their strength and quality. But clearly a pattern is developing. Based on rankings from collegefoot- ballnews.com, Notre Dame played a schedule that ranked among the top 15 nationally in overall strength only three times in the last 15 years. Its 2023 schedule checked in at No. 55, and the 2024 slate rates No. 43 this preseason. The 12 Irish regular-season oppo- nents in 2024 compiled a combined re- cord of only 78-70 last season. Remove Louisville (10-4) and Florida State (13-1) from the equation, and the other 10 Irish opponents this season combined to go 55-65 last year. And while a weak 2024 schedule bol- sters Notre Dame's chances at a playoff berth, what impact will it have at the turnstiles? Back in 2019, Notre Dame saw its 46- year, 273-game sellout streak of home football games end. At the time, Notre Dame director of athletics Jack Swarbrick downplayed having the second-longest sellout streak in the country stopped, blaming its ending, at least in part, on having three chilly November home games that season, two of which didn't sell out (Navy and Boston College). But like a colonoscopy, this develop- ment provided some early detection to a bigger problem because there have been several non-sellouts since. Expect more empty seats this season. This year's six home opponents are Northern Illinois, Miami (Ohio), Lou- isville, Stanford, Florida State and Vir- ginia — not exactly a murderers' row. Much of the lackluster scheduling during the last decade was created by the constraints Notre Dame faces as a moonlighting member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. When the ACC agreed to bring in all of the Notre Dame athletic programs other than football and hockey for the 2013-14 school year, its league officials asked in return that the Irish football program play four or five of its 12 reg- ular-season games every year against their conference teams. The agreement seemed reasonable and it worked well in the early years. But trading games against Michigan for games against Wake Forest didn't exactly move the interest or attendance needle. To Notre Dame's credit, it did sched- ule home-and-homes in recent years with Michigan (2018-19), Georgia (2017, 2019) and Ohio State (2022-23). But beyond that — other than a couple of games versus Clemson — there wasn't much else to get overly excited about. That said, there are some intriguing games on the horizon. Purdue returns to the schedule this season and other matchups with Big Ten foes also dot future schedules — Wis- consin (2026 in Green Bay), Michigan State (2026-27) and Michigan (2033-34). Notre Dame also has h o m e - a n d - h o m e s e - ries lined up with Texas A&M (2024-25), Arkan- sas (2025, 2028), Alabama ( 2 029 -3 0 ) a n d F l o r i d a (2031-32) from the SEC, which will help bolster its scheduling profile. There are no easy an- swers to improving the Irish schedule. The ACC and Notre Dame's place in it is what it is. But as the college football landscape continues to evolve, Notre Dame's scheduling philosophy must also. And perhaps that starts with rethinking the value of playing Navy and Stanford ev- ery year, because those two opponents and 90 percent of the ACC games pro- vide little oomph. With Stanford joining the ACC this year, games against the Cardinal could still be rotated in. But this matchup no longer needs to be an annual affair. The Irish schedule builders could also get more creative and aggressive with their Shamrock Series game and use those NFL and MLB venues as an op- portunity to play a marquee opponent rather than simply plugging in Army or Navy most years. Maybe a softer scheduling philosophy is warranted because it all but guarantees Irish head coach Marcus Freeman 10 wins and playoff consideration every year. That said, playing a schedule this season that includes two games against Mid-American Conference schools, and two more versus military academies, isn't going to excite or entice the Irish fan base, nor will it impress the playoff committee if Notre Dame finds itself on the selection bubble. ✦ This year's home slate includes a pair of contests against MAC foes — including one against Miami (Ohio), whom the Irish faced in 2017 — plus games with Army and Navy. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA Irish Schedule Boosts Playoff Hopes, Not Excitement UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com