Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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6 SEPT. 11, 2017 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY LOU SOMOGYI A ssembling football schedules — especially as a football inde- pendent — has been compared to Rubik's Cube by Notre Dame vice president and director of athletics Jack Swarbrick. Just when it looks like one side of a puzzle is falling into place, another might need adjusting. It happened most recently with the addition of Wisconsin to the 2020 and 2021 slates. With the decision to have them as Shamrock Series games at Green Bay's Lambeau Field in 2020 and Chicago's Soldier Field in 2021, on paper Notre Dame would conse- quently play only five home games in 2020 and seven on the road. Or so that was the thought. Three of the seven road games were ACC tilts at Wake Forest, Pitt and Georgia Tech — with the latter already switched from 2019 because that would have meant the Fighting Irish would play at both Georgia and Georgia Tech the same season. Spread- ing the wealth in the Peach State to 2019 and 2020 worked out much more favorably, although such situations aren't always so accommodating. The 2020 schedule also featured two more road games against two of the "untouchables" on the schedule — Navy to open the season (in New Jersey) and at Stanford to close it. That's five road games. A road game at Purdue had also been scheduled for Sept. 19, 2020, and then there is the contest at Lam- beau versus Wisconsin Oct. 3. That's seven on the road. How can that be for any Power Five team, which generally prefers to stay at home seven times, with six the minimum? Is that why Notre Dame invested close to a half-billion dollars into the new Campus Cross- roads Project? Well, that's where Rubik took a de- tour. 2020 GAME WITH PURDUE SHIFTED Because of the Wisconsin series added in 2020-21, Notre Dame's game at Purdue, tentatively sched- uled for Sept. 19, 2020, in West Lafay- ette, Ind., prompted a reshuffling and balancing of the series where they are now planning to meet six times in the eight-year period from 2021-28. The previous contract between the schools had the 2026 game slated at a neutral site. However, because the 2020 game at Purdue has been eliminated to make for a new home game at Notre Dame and give it the 6-5-1 (six home, five away and the Shamrock Series game with Wiscon- sin) model, the 2024, 2026 and 2028 games will be at Purdue's Ross-Ade Stadium, while the Irish will host the Boilermakers in 2021, 2025 and 2027. With that one home game still to fill in 2020 to give it six, Notre Dame won't make announcements about future schedules until the addition is made in place of Purdue. "I don't anticipate that ever happen- ing," Swarbrick said of playing less than six games at home in a season. "But I also can imagine an opportu- nity coming our way [i.e. Wisconsin in 2020-21], which was too good to pass up, and then you have to wind up with more home games to get that down. We're already out into the 2030s with some games and how to balance it." Some compromise has had to be involved. That includes not having a Shamrock Series game such as this year after having it annually from 2009-16, but still trying to make room for one whenever possible. While many have disagreed about the decision to have Notre Dame- Wisconsin at two NFL stadiums rather than on campus, the reasoning for Swarbrick was two-fold. "From a competitive perspective, on your résumé, two neutral sites [Navy and Wisconsin in 2020] are probably better than one home and one away," he said. "You win the away it's more powerful than either neutral site victory. But it doesn't hurt, and it may help. "The other one is it's great for the university. It's phenomenal when we go to Chicago for the University of Notre Dame. We'll have the same im- pact in Milwaukee. That's a big part of the decision we make here. "We've been to virtually every major American market in 10 years. We haven't gotten to Houston, and we haven't gotten to Denver … and that's about it. That's part of foot- ball's obligation to Notre Dame." UNDER THE DOME AHEAD OF SCHEDULE Notre Dame and Purdue Rearrange Six-Game Series from 2021-28 After the elimination of a planned neutral site contest in 2026, the Fighting Irish and Boilermakers will play three games each in South Bend and West Lafayette over an eight-year stretch. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA