If Notre Dame FB joins a conference, which annual OOC matchups do they keep?
NOTE: This thread is NOT about the likelihood of Notre Dame joining a conference. That has been discussed to death. Rather, it's about a hypothetical situation in which they do.
If ND football goes all in with the ACC, this would leave them with 4 OOC games. Right now they consistently play 3 teams every year: USC, Stanford, and Navy. They could retain all 3 as annual OOC matchups, but this would leave them with just 1 extra game. So I imagine they would drop at least 1 of the 3 rivals, possibly 2. USC is the strongest rivalry, so I think they'd keep them no matter what. Stanford is an artificial rivalry created to increase access to California recruiting. Navy remains on the schedule primarily in return for their help keeping ND financially afloat during WWII. Do they drop Stanford, Navy, both, or neither? What do you think?
My thoughts:
If they have 4 OOC games (as in the ACC):
1) USC
2) Shamrock Series
3) power conference teams (e.g., Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Stanford, etc.)
4) alternate between Navy for two years and other non-power conference teams (buy games) for two years
NOTE: In the ACC, a protected conference game with the Hurricanes (played in Miami at the end of the season when not playing at USC) could replace the annual Stanford game for the purposes of access to fertile recruiting grounds.
If they have 3 OOC games (as in the Big Ten):
1) USC
2) Shamrock Series
3) alternate between Navy for two years and power conference teams (e.g., Boston College, Miami, Pittsburgh, Stanford, etc.) for two years
Now, if they insist on keeping Navy as annual, then here's what we might see:
If they have 4 OOC games (as in the ACC):
1) USC
2) Navy
3) Shamrock Series
4) power conference teams (e.g., Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Stanford, etc.)
If they have 3 OOC games (as in the Big Ten):
1) USC
2) Navy
3) power conference teams (e.g., Boston College, Miami, Pittsburgh, Stanford, etc.) -- some at neutral sites like the Shamrock Series
In the event that Navy joins the ACC for football only along with Notre Dame as a full member, then ND has more OOC schedule flexibility:
1) USC
2) Shamrock Series
3) power conference teams (e.g., Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Stanford, etc.)
4) non-power conference teams (buy games)
(This post was last modified: 10-28-2018 06:37 AM by Nerdlinger.)
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