2023 Football Schedule

[XanderCrews 16]

1 hour ago, NDhoosier said:

I dont care that it is called a HBCU either, I care that it is a FCS team and ND is breaking a huge tradition that many are proud of and most other schools cannot share.

What tradition? They’ve played Rice and UNLV in recent years. That’s not much better than an FCS team. 

[NYGoldenDomer 2,046]

It may not be "much better" but the fact of the matter is they are still FBS schools, not FCS.

[NDhoosier 1,219]

2 hours ago, NYGoldenDomer said:

It may not be "much better" but the fact of the matter is they are still FBS schools, not FCS.

exactly, that is the entire point XanderCrews, FCS... not FBS.

Notre Dame was one of 3 teams in all of college football, now that honor only belongs to USC and UCLA.

[AnTostal 761]

16 hours ago, XanderCrews said:

Yes, ND is participating in aiding Civil Rights by kicking the living s**t out of TN St in football. I don’t really care one way or the other but people making a big deal of this are dumb. 
 

A schedule with Ohio St, USC and Clemson is plenty tough enough to put them in the playoff if they go 11-1. 

Won’t happen.
11-1 ND won’t make the playoffs.  
The loss would likely be either against an Ohio State team or a USC team midway through the season. Not at the beginning of the season. And the Tennessee State game would certainly be weighed in the decision making. 
 

There will likely be at least two teams sitting at 13-0 that get in, and three teams at 12-1 or ND’s 11-1.  It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see the Committee choose a 10-2 Alabama or Georgia over an 11-1 ND given playoff history and who teams beat and lost to. 
 

I just don’t see an 11-1 ND team making the playoffs next year. 
If ND actually manages to go 11-1, we will all be ecstatic and hoping the Committee chooses ND. Here’s to hope. 
 

[ND_JACK 321]

I actually went back to the beginning to read all the reactions. I thought it was a good discussion ….thanks 

[brian_nd88 89]

ND does not make the 4-team playoff if it goes 11-1 even if it is all FBS teams on the schedule.  If ND goes 12-0, it makes the playoffs, especially beating OSU, USC, and Clemson.  

In the expanded playoff approach, 11-1 likely gets ND into the playoffs regardless of whether we play an FCS team or not.  

[jbrown_9999 1,006]

10 hours ago, AnTostal said:

Won’t happen.
11-1 ND won’t make the playoffs.  
The loss would likely be either against an Ohio State team or a USC team midway through the season. Not at the beginning of the season. And the Tennessee State game would certainly be weighed in the decision making. 
 

There will likely be at least two teams sitting at 13-0 that get in, and three teams at 12-1 or ND’s 11-1.  It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see the Committee choose a 10-2 Alabama or Georgia over an 11-1 ND given playoff history and who teams beat and lost to. 
 

I just don’t see an 11-1 ND team making the playoffs next year. 
If ND actually manages to go 11-1, we will all be ecstatic and hoping the Committee chooses ND. Here’s to hope. 
 

It's pointless arguing hypotheticals since there is no way to know if anyone is right. But an 11-1 ND team with a victory over an 12-1 Ohio St or a 12-1 Southern Cal team might get in.  

[mcgov12 1,234]

35 minutes ago, jbrown_9999 said:

It's pointless arguing hypotheticals since there is no way to know if anyone is right. But an 11-1 ND team with a victory over an 12-1 Ohio St or a 12-1 Southern Cal team might get in.  

Agreed, depends on the rest of the cfb world, but go 2-1 vs Clemson, Ohio st, usc (and that’s the only loss) and they all remain strong like their preseason ranking, I think ND is in

[jimbo 376]

6 hours ago, jbrown_9999 said:

It's pointless arguing hypotheticals since there is no way to know if anyone is right. But an 11-1 ND team with a victory over an 12-1 Ohio St or a 12-1 Southern Cal team might get in.  

Exactly. Really, who would have predicted both Clemson and Alabama wouldn’t make the playoffs this season and TCU would play in the championship game?

I understand the viewpoint of those who don’t want to dilute the schedule by playing an FCS team. Personally I don’t see much difference between playing HBCU Tenn St or a really bad FBS team. 

[USAFA03_HUGENDFAN 242]

On 1/21/2023 at 12:32 AM, jimbo said:

Personally I don’t see much difference between playing HBCU Tenn St or a really bad FBS team. 

Seriously?  TSU is not even a good or decent FCS team and it’s unlikely they beat a “really bad FBS team”. 
 

Here’s their record over the past five years. 
 

2022: 4-7

2021: 5-6

2020: 2-5

2019: 3-9

2018: 4-5

They’re in the Ohio Valley Conference and in terms of FCS it’s like the MAC or old Sun Belt, before they started producing a few decent teams.  However, they did have one school make the FCS playoff this year with SEMO.

Oddly enough HBCUs have their own rankings and TSU was 16th out of 21!

https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2022-12-17/final-hbcu-football-power-rankings-2022-season?amp

If ND was playing an up and coming FCS school like App St or JMU before they made the jump to FBS fine. If they were playing recent FCS top teams like NDSU, SDSU, EWU, or NIU fine. If they were playing large name catholic schools like Villanova or Georgetown, which is just as bad in football as they are basketball recently, then fine.  I’d even be on board if they were playing Grambling, Southern, Howard, or JSU, if they had to play an HBCU.  
 

ND played Howard in basketball last year at Howard and that was one of the biggest turnouts of fans for that team.  They should have done a deal to play them in football and did and home and home. You could have moved the game to where the Commanders play and filled that stadium with hordes of fans from both schools in the DC area. Which would have been great for recruiting since ND has pulled a lot of kids or gone after a lot of kids from that area. 
 

I just can’t with TSU. Find me one FBS  team they would be competitive against.  Before the schedule or the game was announced last year how many people had even heard of TSU?  At least all the teams mentioned above are known to the most casual football fans.  Unless you were from TN who even knew TSU was a school?  Maybe that’s the whole point to give them some recognition . 

[jimbo 376]

2 hours ago, USAFA03_HUGENDFAN said:

Seriously?  TSU is not even a good or decent FCS team and it’s unlikely they beat a “really bad FBS team”. 
 

Here’s their record over the past five years. 
 

2022: 4-7

2021: 5-6

2020: 2-5

2019: 3-9

2018: 4-5

They’re in the Ohio Valley Conference and in terms of FCS it’s like the MAC or old Sun Belt, before they started producing a few decent teams.  However, they did have one school make the FCS playoff this year with SEMO.

Oddly enough HBCUs have their own rankings and TSU was 16th out of 21!

https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2022-12-17/final-hbcu-football-power-rankings-2022-season?amp

 

If ND was playing an up and coming FCS school like App St or JMU before they made the jump to FBS fine. If they were playing recent FCS top teams like NDSU, SDSU, EWU, or NIU fine. If they were playing large name catholic schools like Villanova or Georgetown, which is just as bad in football as they are basketball recently, then fine.  I’d even be on board if they were playing Grambling, Southern, Howard, or JSU, if they had to play an HBCU.  
 

ND played Howard in basketball last year at Howard and that was one of the biggest turnouts of fans for that team.  They should have done a deal to play them in football and did and home and home. You could have moved the game to where the Commanders play and filled that stadium with hordes of fans from both schools in the DC area. Which would have been great for recruiting since ND has pulled a lot of kids or gone after a lot of kids from that area. 
 

I just can’t with TSU. Find me one FBS  team they would be competitive against.  Before the schedule or the game was announced last year how many people had even heard of TSU?  At least all the teams mentioned above are known to the most casual football fans.  Unless you were from TN who even knew TSU was a school?  Maybe that’s the whole point to give them some recognition . 

 

 

I should have stated it more clearly than I did, what I meant was playing any FCS team, not specifically Tenn St, wasn’t much different to me than playing a bad FBS team. Some folks are against playing any FCS team, and that was what I was addressing with that comment. I agree with you that Tenn St hasn’t been a very good team.

You did mention NIU, although if I remember correctly, they joined the MAC in the 70’s or 80’s?

Does any one know if this flirtation with playing a FCS or HBCU is a one-off or is it something that will be considered in future years?

[brian_nd88 89]

Here is some background on how the TSU matchup came about.  

https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/college/2022/04/06/eddie-george-marcus-freeman-how-2023-tennessee-state-notre-dame-game-came/9477664002/

[Rocketsan 766]

17 hours ago, jbrown_9999 said:

It's pointless arguing hypotheticals since there is no way to know if anyone is right. But an 11-1 ND team with a victory over an 12-1 Ohio St or a 12-1 Southern Cal team might get in.  

they absolutely do...

[USAFA03_HUGENDFAN 242]

12 hours ago, jimbo said:

.

You did mention NIU, although if I remember correctly, they joined the MAC in the 70’s or 80’s?

Sorry should have spelled that one out. Northern Iowa (FBS) not Northern Illinois (FBS). 

[NDhoosier 1,219]

On 1/21/2023 at 4:06 AM, jimbo said:

Does any one know if this flirtation with playing a FCS or HBCU is a one-off or is it something that will be considered in future years?

Please God, I hope it is a one time thing...

From my understanding, no others have been talked about.

[NYGoldenDomer 2,046]

My fear is games like Marshall this year, and several other games that seem to happen almost every year.  Teams the Irish should manhandle but end up being taken to the wire.  This year the Irish weren't able to squeak out that win.  It will look very bad if TSU hangs in this game with the Irish until the very end.

[Tailgate Approved 248]

15 hours ago, NYGoldenDomer said:

My fear is games like Marshall this year, and several other games that seem to happen almost every year.  Teams the Irish should manhandle but end up being taken to the wire.  This year the Irish weren't able to squeak out that win.  It will look very bad if TSU hangs in this game with the Irish until the very end.

What can I do to help you avoid spending the next 9 months worrying about such a scenario? I think you're giving that game way too much thought.

[ND_JACK 321]

15 hours ago, NYGoldenDomer said:

My fear is games like Marshall this year, and several other games that seem to happen almost every year.  Teams the Irish should manhandle but end up being taken to the wire.  This year the Irish weren't able to squeak out that win.  It will look very bad if TSU hangs in this game with the Irish until the very end.

I agree. The ND Football Program has nothing to gain but everything to lose by playing this game. Eddie George going to pull out all the rabbits from his hat. He doesn’t even have to motivate his team. Imagine first preparing for Navy over in IRELAND then coming home and having to play TSU. Why…..those games are supposed to prepare for tougher teams on your schedule like OSU….lol

[FaithInIrish Forever 4,690]

7 hours ago, ND_JACK said:

I agree. The ND Football Program has nothing to gain but everything to lose by playing this game. Eddie George going to pull out all the rabbits from his hat. He doesn’t even have to motivate his team. Imagine first preparing for Navy over in IRELAND then coming home and having to play TSU. Why…..those games are supposed to prepare for tougher teams on your schedule like OSU….lol

Early in the season its about finding your identity. I hoping our offense is explosive it won't matter who we play if we score 40-45. Marshall game mattered because we scored like 21 points.

[NYGoldenDomer 2,046]

9 hours ago, Tailgate Approved said:

What can I do to help you avoid spending the next 9 months worrying about such a scenario? I think you're giving that game way too much thought.

I'm not thinking about anything.  I am participating in a conversation on the internet.