I know we have one of the toughest schedules in the nation and we can argue that we play the best from the Big ten, ACC, B12, PAC 12, but why are we avoiding the SEC. After being embarrassed last night I would almost rather be exposed during the season than be embarrassed on college footballs biggest stage.

 

Looking at our future schedule. 2013 is already set.

 

2014

8-30 Rice

9-6 Michigan

9-13 Purdue

9-27 vs. Syracuse @East Rutherford, NJ

10-4 Stanford

10-11 @ Temple

10-25 @ Arizona State

11-1 vs. Navy @Landover, MD

11-8 Pittsburgh

11-15 Northwestern

11-29 @ Southern California

 

2015

9-5 Texas

9-19 @ Purdue

9-26 Massachusetts

10-10 Navy

10-17 Southern California

11-7 Wake Forest

11-14 @ Pittsburgh

11-21 Syracuse

11-28 @ Stanford

TBA @ Boston College

 

Looks like we can schedule an away and home for 2014-2015. Problem is that we are now strapped with having to schedule 5 ACC teams, but who knows how that conference will look then. I would look at least 1 SEC team every year and preferably a top 3-4 team.

Top tier SEC would prob. not want to.

Top tier SEC would prob. not want to.

 

Exactly.

 

I don't know that it's we havent tried or don't want to. You realize teams like Florida and Georgia haven't played north of the Mason Dixon line in an eternity! Good luck getting them to come to South Bend in October.

 

Not to mention, the SEC is too concerned with scheduling the Jacksonville States and Middle Tennessee Techs of the world for the OOC games.

We used to play some pretty decent Tennessee teams in the mid-2000s. Here is a run down of our record against SEC teams: http://espn.go.com/blog/notre-dame-football/post/_/id/12087/notre-dame-vs-the-sec. But overall, unless it is a bowl match-up, there doesn't seem to be much interest in seeing each other.

Exactly.

 

I don't know that it's we havent tried or don't want to. You realize teams like Florida and Georgia haven't played north of the Mason Dixon line in an eternity! Good luck getting them to come to South Bend in October.

 

Not to mention, the SEC is too concerned with scheduling the Jacksonville States and Middle Tennessee Techs of the world for the OOC games.

 

True, but Alabama did play Michigan this year, granted it was a neutral site. It would at least be nice to hear about us trying to schedule SEC teams even if they are scared to come to South Bend.

True, but Alabama did play Michigan this year, granted it was a neutral site. It would at least be nice to hear about us trying to schedule SEC teams even if they are scared to come to South Bend.

 

Yeah, maybe one of the Shamrock Series games in the future. I'd be shocked if any of Georgia, LSU, Florida, Bama, USC East would do a home and home.

One major perk of playing some SEC teams is that we could actually see the speed of the players in that conference. No other conference we play can give us a credible look at that except a few individual teams such as Florida St. None of the teams like Oklahoma or USC are able to give us those looks anymore since their talent is nowhere near what it was.

True, but Alabama did play Michigan this year, granted it was a neutral site. It would at least be nice to hear about us trying to schedule SEC teams even if they are scared to come to South Bend.

 

Bama did a home and away with PSU a couple years ago.

Plus it could keep us in the backyard of the talent in the south.

Wasn't there talk of us trying to get some SEC games on the schedule back when White was still the AD, or early in Swarbrick's tenure but we couldn't get them on board? I just seem to remember hearing or reading something about it.

It was with Alabama sometime around 2008. The hold up was that they wanted home and home series and Notre Dame and NBC wanted a one season neutral site.

SEC has NO need to schedule Us anytime soon. We need to be able to dominate the schedule we have and not have to overcome let downs to Purdue, Pitt, BYU etc. That was a good ol' fashion can of Woop ass.

SEC has NO need to schedule Us anytime soon. We need to be able to dominate the schedule we have and not have to overcome let downs to Purdue, Pitt, BYU etc. That was a good ol' fashion can of Woop ass.

 

Amen to that. Why would any SEC school kick Western Carolina off their schedule to play us right before the SEC season begins? They'd be crazy to do that when they want three warm up games at home before the SEC starts

The SEC won't come up north. This is one of the reasons they are better than most. If they played up north they wouldn't be as good I would bet.

Why not schedule an lower tier SEC team such as Ole Miss or Kentucky to start off with. Maybe ND should start to schedule 1 game against every big conference. That would be different.

This is going to get harder and harder with us having to schedule 5 ACC games and maintain traditional rivalries.

 

Consider:

 

5 ACC games.

USC

BC

Michigan

MSU

Stanford

 

I think we have a home and home with Texas coming up in the near future? I know there are some others as well. Fact of the matter is that it is going to get a lot tougher to do this in the near future and it benefits the SEC very little to schedule ND. Better to schedule Western Carolina.

I agree with the concept of at least playing an SEC team. I've had the nightmare luck of being raised in SEC country as a ND fan and can't stand it!!!! Our SOS is quite good but the haters here don't believe it. Playing UT would be great morale boost for the base in the south and so I can tell my coworkers and family members to suck it.

 

First post btw. Watched and read debates here for nearly a year. Went to my first game against UM this year. My relationship with the community is definitely growing.

Why not schedule an lower tier SEC team such as Ole Miss or Kentucky to start off with. Maybe ND should start to schedule 1 game against every big conference. That would be different.

 

I just don't think scheduling teams at the bottom of the SEC would help us see how good we are. SEC is the best conference, but they are top heavy. Kentucky doesn't have SEC talent they just play in the SEC.

 

As far as NBC telling ND how to schedule, hopefully we have more leverage now with them although I don't see why they would care. We're going to schedule 4 road games, 7 home, and 1 neutral game every year regardless, who cares who we play?

SEC is the best conference, but they are top heavy. ?

 

This is very true. The SEC is morphing right now a bit though too. Idk too many who would have thought TAMU would come in and be a contender. UF seems to be down and out. (Muschamp won't last hopefully) UT is down but not out. There are still athletes coming out of there.

 

Scheduling an SEC opponent, top or bottom, won't do too much as far at litmus test so much as it would really help sure up the base in the south and rake in some more recruits.

As far as NBC telling ND how to schedule, hopefully we have more leverage now with them although I don't see why they would care. We're going to schedule 4 road games, 7 home, and 1 neutral game every year regardless, who cares who we play?

 

Ratings for USC were much higher than the ratings for Wake Forest

 

Ratings = $$$ for both NBC and ND

I'm not a hater, of course, but I don't see next year's schedule as particularly strong. Michigan and Stanford will be tough, and USC has talent. But Oklahoma is in decline, MSU has no offense, and no other team looks formidable. We stand a fair chance of playing an SEC team next year: Alabama in the BCS.