Will Notre Dame try to fill the September 19 opening on the football schedule made by the decision of the Mid-American Conference to postpone its fall football season?
With effect from Friday 14 August, the answer will remain open.
“I think the answer to this question for now is not one,” Notre Dame Vice President and Athletics Director Jack Swarbrick told Irish Illustrated on Friday afternoon.
“We will continue to check the options and see what opportunities there are ahead.”
The opening on September 19 was made when the MAC decided to give a season of autumn football and instead try to play in the spring. That meant Notre Dame’s second game of the newly renewed schedule as a member of the ACC with 10 conference games and a “plus-one” against Western Michigan was eliminated from the MAC.
Notre Dame is one of 10 out of 15 ACC teams to schedule a non-conference game within the first two weeks. Currently, the Irish have been driving sideways before Oct. 3 after their first game against Duke (Sept. 12), following the road trip to Wake Forest (Sept. 26), and after the eighth game against Boston College (Nov. 14). .
The ACC, the SEC and the Big 12 are the three Power 5 conferences that have chosen to continue with a fall schedule, while the Big Ten and Pac-12 have pulled the plug. The ACC’s decision – now 29 days before Notre Dame’s opening goal against the Blue Devils on the second Saturday in September – gives Notre Dame extra time to decide to miss an 11th game on the schedule or not play another game conference to secure.
“While the Big Ten and the Pac-12 made their final decisions about the fall, we made the decision to practice today,” Swarbrick said. “That gives us some space as the start of the season approaches.”
As of August 14, the Mountain West had been a member of the MAC among Group of 5 conferences in proposing a fall schedule with Conference USA, the American Athletic Conference and the Sun Belt Conference planning to play this fall.
Members of the AAC include Central Florida, Memphis, Cincinnati, SMU, Marine, Tulane, Houston, Temple, Tulsa, South Florida and East Carolina. Notre Dame denied the opportunity to play Navy for a 94th straight year to avoid, among other factors, a cancellation fee with the Broncos. The difficulty of adapting future schedules with Navy also contributed to the decision.
Conference teams include Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, Alabama-Birmingham, Southern Mississippi, Florida Atlantic, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, North Texas, Rice, Florida International, Charlotte, Texas-San Antonio, Old Dominion and Texas-El Paso.
The following teams include the Sun Belt – Appalachian State, Louisiana, Arkansas State, Georgia Southern, Troy, Georgia State, Coastal Carolina, South Alabama, Louisiana-Monroe and Texas State.
Three self-employed people – Connecticut, Massachusetts and the state of New Mexico – have canceled their fall schemes, while BYU, Army and Liberty still intend to play.
Swarbrick would not speculate on what the Notre Dame ACC members would do regarding his plus-one games. But a source told Irish Illustrated earlier this week that other ACC schools could decide to give up their game for non-conference.
