Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Under the Dome Notre Dame's initial five ACC foes in 2014 included road games at Syracuse (already listed because it had been previously scheduled and then conveniently meshed in as an ACC opponent) and Florida State. The three scheduled home games with ACC opponents in 2014 were Louisville, North Carolina and Wake Forest. In the ACC rotation, Notre Dame will play three of the five games at home in even-numbered years and two of the five at home in odd-numbered years. However, Blue & Gold Illustrated has learned that Wake Forest might be the ACC opponent moved off the schedule in 2014 for a future year. The Demon Deacons played at Notre Dame in the 2012 home finale. If that becomes the case, that would leave Florida State, Louisville and North Carolina as the other ACC opponents for 2014, and therefore make possible the 12-game regular-season schedule. Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly told ESPN.com on Dec. 3 that the leaning does appear to be toward playing only four ACC teams in 2014. "There's not a lot of wiggle room in these schedules right now," he told ESPN.com. "We're trying to do our best to balance it out, and I think 2014, you're going to see four ACC teams, and then in '15 I think we're going to get to six." Thereafter, the goal would be for Notre Dame will play current No. 1 Florida State in Tallahassee Notre Dame to have five ACC games in 2014. Getting the date confirmed and released is the final every season, as specified in the origistep. nal agreement. photo by Greg Oyster The Irish have five open dates left in 2014 to fill with Florida State, Louisville and North Carolina, and the other two would be byes, just like this year. Earlier reports have indicated that the game with the Seminoles will be Notre Dame's first in the ACC, with Sept. 20 as the target date, but the date of the game remains unconfirmed. There also has been popular belief that the game with Purdue would be the Shamrock Series event for Notre Dame in Indianapolis. That too has not been announced, and Blue & Gold Illustrated has learned that Louisville could be a potential option for that meeting. If Purdue will not be the 2014 Shamrock Series game, in Indianapolis, then it will mark only the third time since 1941 that the Fighting Irish would begin a football season with three straight games in Notre Dame Stadium. The Irish opened with three in a row on their own turf in 1978 (Missouri, Michigan and Purdue) and 2000 (Texas A&M, Nebraska and Purdue).