BY LOU SOMOGYI
P
laying two college football
teams from the same state in one
season has not been unusual at
Notre Dame.
USC and Stanford, both in Califor-
nia, are mandated to be on the sched-
ule every season in an effort to have
a recruiting presence in that fertile
state. As recently as 2007, Notre Dame
played three California teams, with
UCLA added to the annual contests
with the Trojans and Cardinal.
Back-to-back games with Michigan
and Michigan State were regularly
scheduled from 1978-2013, and on oc-
casion Purdue and Indiana have been
in-state opponents (most recently in
1991), as were Northwestern and Il-
linois, the last time in 1968.
Pennsylvania also was a priority in
the 1980s when both Pitt and Penn
State regularly were on the Irish slate
through 1992. Even having Colorado
and Air Force on the docket in 1983-84
has occurred despite that state not
being a recruiting hotbed for Notre
Dame.
However, to have two teams from
Massachusetts on the schedule prob-
ably would not have been projected.
The Fighting Irish host UMass Sept. 26
and then face Boston College in ven-
erable Fenway Park Nov. 21 for the
Shamrock Series.
Massachusetts didn't even become
a Football Bowl Subdivision school
until 2012 in the Mid-American
Conference (it will become indepen-
dent in 2016-17), and it is the closest
Notre Dame has come to playing a
Football Championship Subdivision
school since the separate divisions
were formed in 1978. Currently, Notre
Dame joins USC and UCLA as the lone
schools in the Football Bowl Subdivi-
sion that have not yet played an FCS
school in football.
Although Massachusetts is the
seventh-smallest state among the 50
when it comes to land area, it is the
14th-most populous (and third-most
densely populated) in the Union,
Small State,
BIG RESULTS
Massachusetts has a history
of providing stellar football
personnel to Notre Dame
