Comments on: The Gist of our Goals

By: irishhawk50

irishhawk50 — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 15:26:16 +0000

Mike

Maybe shouldn’t have used the word shoot in this day and age maybe choke would be better.

By: irishhawk50

irishhawk50 — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 15:20:29 +0000

I think most of us would have preferred ND to be a true independent and keep a more diverse schedule, but the reality of the “super conferences” and their limiting schedules forced Jack’s hand. I think he made a necessary decision with the ACC compromise.

I know that no one will ever listen to anything we say, but my wish list would include rotating the service academies (I know the history with Navy, but…). I would like to open with a lower tier team each year to give the team a “warm-up” game. I would like to keep Michigan with at least a home and home every few years and a mix of Big 10 thrown in (think they did the right thing cutting back some Purdue games). Don’t think the BYU series brings much to the table. Not too sold on Stanford forever and wouldn’t mind assorted PAC teams in the mix. Would like a home and home with SEC. Agree with the critcs of UMass (at least open with them). Don’t like the trend towards night games, but most are away games beyond control and most of all shoot anyone who talks of Thursday night games. Go Irish!

By: rays15

rays15 — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 14:31:02 +0000

I’m not too worried about Stanford declining. Five straight years of Top 10, under two different coaches. They seem to have figured it out. As with any program, they could blunder into mediocrity again, but they have a lot going for them — academic prestige, weather, strong overall sports teams, and now a history (for young people whose attention span is as long as a tweet).

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 15:01:55 +0000

In reply to BoogAlou. I have to disagree. While Notre Dame is in the Midwest, I would argue that it is a national school. There are alumni and followers all over the country, and abroad. Their nickname was orignally the Ramblers, because they traveled all over the country. Rockne was the one that started the California trips. I think it's great that Notre Dame can travel all over the country, and sell out.

By: Drasail2

Drasail2 — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 06:23:37 +0000

It all makes sense except for scheduling the SEC. Save them for the bowl game because it’s impossible to know in advance when one of their teams is going to be on probation.

By: nwifan

nwifan — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 01:44:24 +0000

I really don’t think playing “family” is a priority. There are a lot of obstacles, and there are going to be a few dogs out there. There are very few teams left that won’t play FCS teams, and even the MAC is an extreme rarity for ND, but the MAC is going to happen once in a while. When they do, they are going to try to spin those games and try to find a hook however they can. I don’t disagree about the Stanford thing, it just seems like a safe choice for them.

By: GOND89

GOND89 — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 01:15:27 +0000

I’m proud of my fellow-Domesters. (ND-fans) Truth be told, I haven’t spent much time reading feedback from us Domesters b/c I’ve wanted to just wait until the schedule is a fait-accompli and then evaluate it for myself. That being said, I have not (of course, by intention) remained privy to the manifold options as they relate to agendas, etc. But THAT being said, I would gladly acknowledge my depth-deficiency of evaluation. So finally, (drum-roll) what do I think?

Swarbrick for President.

Jack deserves all the accolades in the world for wrestling with his/NotaDame’s (I’m a Bostonian) ambitions along with the manifold other factors and producing a GOLD-STANDARD of a schedule.
Kudos, Jack.

By: RockMcD

RockMcD — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 22:00:15 +0000

There’s a lot of ingredients to chew on here, so most fans are probably gonna find 1 or 2 bones to pick, and it’ll be different things for different people. My 2 cents:

I think “playing our family” is a non-story. The way I interpreted this was that Notre Dame, just like every other popular program, is going to have at least 1 “buy” game every year vs a bodybag opponent. So how do you decide which opponent to choose? In this case we picked some arbitrary reason other than money. Okay, big deal. Before they decided to choose UMass and Nevada based on some arbitrary reason, they were choosing Rice for no apparent reason. I didn’t get the impression that the “playing our family” criteria was intended for anything other than one-off buy games.

It could also be that “playing our family” is really more about “negotiating with our family”. From a practical standpoint, negotiating the terms of these games is probably a PITA so maybe it’s more about doing business with someone who is more likely to accomodate ND’s desired terms. By the time the game is actually played, they probably don’t really care who the coach is.

I agree that they should rotate Pac 12 opponents other than USC. But I’m not sure I’m following the theory that the Pac 12 is limiting ND to 2 games. How would that explain the midseason games vs ASU in 2013 and 2014, and ASU’s insistence that the 2014 game not be cancelled?

Count me among the people who like the Shamrock Series. Even when they don’t get a decent opponent like Miami or ASU, it creates a buzz in sense of “where are they gonna play this year?” – kind of like a midseason bowl game in a way. It allows a larger quantity of tickets for fans who live in other parts of the country to watch an ND game without getting raked over the coals by the opponent’s opportunistic ticket pricing (the scarcity of tickets at Fenway Park will be an exception). And most important of all, the team has played great. I think they’ve beaten the point spread by a wide margin in all 5 games. The thing I like about the game at Fenway is that since ND controls the majority of the tickets, and with ND fans likely to outspend BC fans in the secondary markets, it will be rich to see the BC fans drowned out in their own home town.

By: BoogAlou

BoogAlou — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 21:59:29 +0000

This scheduling makes me wonder what Notre Dame thinks of itself as a football school. ND is not an east coast school and this ACC tie makes it appear as if it is. ND is a midwest school and you’d hardly know it from the new schedules. As someone who lives west of the Rockies and loves the national schedules, I am particularly disappointed with the whittling down of PAC opponents and the elimination of the ASU game in South Bend. The SEC is very tough now but for decades the PAC was the best football conference and I hate to see us lose the chance to play other PAC teams, as we have over the years. I don’t mind trying new stuff — I attended the Miami game at Soldier Field and loved it and Chicago — but not at the expense of identity. I’d love to play FSU and Miami regularly, but a regular dose of Duke, NC State, UVA, Clemson? No thanks. We’re not a southern school either. At least we didn’t used to be.

By: Vairish84

Vairish84 — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 20:16:55 +0000

I like the overseas games. Perhaps a big opponent, Alabama, etc. We could open the season with it, perhaps a week early so there is an extra bye to readjust. I would imagine for an ND-Bama game we could get the necessary NCAA waivers.