Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2012 Notre Dame Football Preview
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/998819
BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2018 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ✦ 35 2021 at Florida State (Labor Day, Sept. 6) at Virginia Tech North Carolina at Virginia Georgia Tech 2022 at North Carolina at Syracuse Boston College Clemson 2023 at North Carolina State at Duke at Louisville Wake Forest at Clemson Pittsburgh 2024 Miami at Georgia Tech Florida State Virginia 2025 at Miami North Carolina State at Boston College at Pittsburgh Syracuse 2026 at North Carolina Virginia Louisville at Florida State Syracuse 2027 Georgia Tech at Wake Forest at Duke Virginia Tech at Clemson 2028 Boston College at Pittsburgh Miami at Virginia Tech Clemson 2029 Wake Forest at North Carolina State at Syracuse Georgia Tech at Florida State 2030 at Boston College North Carolina at Louisville Florida State Duke 2031 at Clemson (Labor Day, Aug. 30) Miami at Virginia at North Carolina North Carolina State 2032 Florida State at Georgia Tech Louisville at Miami Wake Forest 2033 at Duke Pittsburgh at Boston College Virginia Tech at Louisville 2034 Syracuse at Pittsburgh at Miami Clemson Virginia 2035 at Virginia Boston College at Louisville Duke at North Carolina State Notre Dame's Future ACC Schedules "That's part of the football program's obligation to Notre Dame." • The goal is to have at least four of the five Power Five conferences represented as a marker for the College Football Playoff committee. The Pac-12 will always be represented with USC and Stanford, as will the ACC with about five games per year for the Irish as a partial football member. After not playing a Big Ten team in 2015 (a first in 100 years), at least one Big Ten opponent is on the schedule every year from now through at least 2028, including Michigan (2018-19), Wisconsin (2020-21), Ohio State (2022-23) and Michigan State (2026-27) — plus Purdue six times during an eight-year stretch from 2021-28. Landing SEC games has been a priority for Swarbrick, and that has so far included Georgia in 2017 and 2019, Vanderbilt in 2018, Arkansas in 2020 and 2025, Texas A&M in 2024-25 and Alabama in 2028-29. The Big 12 might be the most challeng- ing to land, but the Irish did have back-to- back series with the two linchpins of the league in Oklahoma (2012-13) and Texas (2015-16). As an independent, it's become more difficult to deal from a position of strength. "It's hard to get them all in," Swarbrick said. "It starts with two Pac-12, five ACC — and then the inventory is especially lim- ited for the return game." There are still plans to fulfill its agree- ment for a game at BYU after the Cougars took back-to-back visits to Notre Dame in 2012-13. "We want to give our team the platform to get to the College Football Playoff, and we want to have the best teams on it," Swarbrick said. "Intent is part of what the selection committee looks at. "A program might be down by the time you get to it, but when you schedule that game — who were they, and what does it say about your intent?" Unfortunately, there is a separate price that comes with being independent in foot- ball. Swarbrick acknowledges that the 2019 schedule that features road games at Lou- isville (on Labor Day), Georgia, Michigan and Stanford is a case of "overscheduling." "That's one more tough road game than I'd like," he said. "It's not ideal, but when you're trying to put this together, it's not like you get to choose every game or where it goes. You're working through situations where the number of transactions with the ACC is really complicated. "I understand the reaction to '19 … but it's how it fell, and it's up to us to try to navigate it." Regardless, he said that as an indepen- dent it's Notre Dame's duty to build its ré- sumé with a 12-game schedule that matches or eclipses any 13-game slate a conference team might have with a league champion- ship contest. "We have to be good enough to navigate it," Swarbrick said. "Independence means playing the best schedule you can. If you're not going to do that, don't be an indepen- dent. We've chosen to be independent." ✦ 2018 Michigan Vanderbilt Stanford at Northwestern at USC 2019 at Georgia USC at Michigan at Stanford 2020 Arkansas vs. Wisconsin (at Green Bay) Stanford at USC 2021 Purdue vs. Wisconsin (at Chicago) at Stanford USC 2022 at Ohio State Stanford at USC 2023 Ohio State at Stanford USC 2024 at Texas A&M at Purdue Stanford at USC 2025 Purdue Texas A&M at Arkansas USC 2026 at Purdue Michigan State 2027 Purdue at Michigan State 2028 Alabama at Purdue 2029 at Alabama Notre Dame's Future Non-ACC Power Five Opponents