:: Notre Dame Football ::
Notre Dame Football 2010 schedule: historic, national, exciting (Update 1)
Leprechaun Express: Notre Dame Football Intel Update, Updated Fall 2010
Notre Dame Football plays an exciting national schedule against top competitors in 2010, including opponents from the Big Ten/11, PAC-10, Big East, ACC, Mountain West, MAC, Conference USA, and service academy independents. The schedule is rich with history, renewing match-ups first played in the 1880's, 1890's, early 1900's, 1910's, and 1920's. Many of the match-ups recall historic milestones for the Notre Dame program and the game of football overall. It also features some of the strongest academic institutions that also play big-time college football.
Notre Dame Football 2010
PURDUE - Sept. 4 - Notre Dame Stadium, NBC [3:30]
MICHIGAN - Sept. 11 - Notre Dame Stadium, NBC [3:30]
at Michigan State - Sept. 18 - East Lansing; ABC/ESPN/tbd
STANFORD - Sept. 25 - Notre Dame Stadium, NBC [3:30]
at Boston College - Oct. 2 - Chestnut Hill; ABC/ESPN/tbd
PITTSBURGH - Oct. 9 - Notre Dame Stadium, NBC [3:30]
WESTERN MICHIGAN - Oct. 16 - Notre Dame Stadium, NBC [2:30]
at Navy - Oct. 23 - (at Meadowlands - East Rutherford, N.J.) - CBS [12]
TULSA - Oct. 30 - Notre Dame Stadium, NBC [2:30]
[bye week] - Nov. 6
UTAH - Nov. 13 - Notre Dame Stadium, NBC [2:30]
ARMY - Nov. 20 - Yankee Stadium, The Bronx, N.Y., NBC [7:00]
at USC - Nov. 27 - Los Angeles Coliseum, ABC/ESPN/tbd
(times estimated or speculative)
Notre Dame Football on Television 2010
Notre Dame home games and Notre Dame-hosted neutral site games are televised by NBC. In 2009, home games started at 3:30 PM EDT prior to the fall changing of clocks (the ending of daylight savings time). After the clock-change, the home game broadcasts started at 2:30 PM EST. The neutral site game broadcast was in prime-time, starting at 7:30 PM ET. Actual kick-off times were roughly 12 minutes after the start of the NBC broadcasts (i.e., if the broadcast started at 3:30, kick-off was actually around 3:42).
The game hosted by Navy at the Meadowlands should be broadcast by CBS. The last time Navy was the home team, the game started at 12 noon ET.
For the other three away games, it appears that ABC would own the conference rights for the games at Michigan State, Boston College, and Southern Cal. The Southern Cal game almost certainly will be on ABC true national television in prime-time, 8 PM ET. The games against Michigan State and Boston College probably will be on ABC or ESPN, in mid-afternoon or in the evening, depending on how well the teams are doing (depending more upon how well Notre Dame is doing).
As a result, Notre Dame should be on true national television for at least nine of its twelve regular season games -- NBC for the seven mid-afternoon home games and prime-time neutral site game, and CBS for the Navy game, most likely at noon.
Depending upon how Notre Dame and the opponent are doing (especially depending upon whether Notre Dame is doing well), the three games at Michigan State, Boston College, and Southern Cal could be on ABC national television, on ABC for just some regions, on ESPN (available across all regions, albeit to just to the half of American homes subscribing to cable), on ABC for some regions and ESPN for others (reverse mirror), or on ABC for some regions. All games on ABC and ESPN are available through the internet, on ESPN360, but not all internet provides include access to ESPN 360. But it seems likely the Southern Cal game would certainly be on ABC in primetime.
Conferences/ service academies
Notre Dame plays a national schedule with coast-to-coast opponents from seven conferences, plus two of the service academy independents.
Big Ten/11 - Purdue, Michigan, Michigan State
PAC-10 - Stanford, Southern Cal
service academy independents - Navy, Army
Big East - Pitt
ACC - Boston College
MAC - Western Michigan
Conference USA - Tulsa
Mountain West - Utah
The only FBS/Div. I-A conferences without a team on Notre Dame's schedule are the Sun Belt, SEC, Big 12, and WAC.
Notre Dame plays a MAC team for the first time, although in the 1990's Notre Dame was scheduled to play Miami of Ohio in what would turn out to have been the first game in the newly expanded Notre Dame Stadium. As a result, Notre Dame asked Miami to drop them, and played Georgia Tech instead.
Notre Dame also plays Utah for the first time, although the Irish have played teams from the Mountain West Conference. And the Irish play Tulsa for the first time, nevertheless having played teams currently in Conference USA, most notably Houston when Houston was a top-10 program winning the old Southwest Conference.
Utah was the de facto national champion in 2008 (the only undefeated team in the FBS/Div. I-A, with multiple wins over top-10 opponents, and a blow-out win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, by a bigger margin than Alabama lost to Florida).
Notre Dame Football Schedule Historic Dimensions
Some historic dimensions of the match-ups:
:: Notre Dame vs. Southern Cal - the greatest national rivalry in college football began in 1926, interrupted only by a few years during World War II (otherwise it would be the longest-running continuous national rivalry); 82d game in the series
:: Notre Dame vs. Navy - longest continuous rivalry in major college football, started in 1927, the year after Notre Dame started playing Southern Cal; in the first half of the 1960's, Notre Dame and Navy combined for three Heisman trophies; 84th game in the series
:: Notre Dame vs. Michigan - the two winningest programs in college football history first played in 1887, also Notre Dame's first-ever game (following, apparently, just after Notre Dame's first-ever practice); 36th game in the series (including two games in one year, both in the spring; the series has had long hiatuses but has been much more steady in recent decades)
:: Notre Dame vs. Purdue - series began in 1896, has included some of the greatest quarterbacks in football history; 82d games in the series
:: Notre Dame vs. Michigan State - series began in 1897; 74th games in the series
:: Notre Dame vs. Pitt - series began in 1909; 65th games in the series
:: Notre Dame vs. Stanford - Notre Dame's first consensus national title was secured with a victory over Stanford concluding the 1924 season, when Knute Rockne, the Four Horsemen and the Seven Mules traveled to Pasadena to defeat Stanford, Pop Warner, and Ernie Nevers in the 1925 Rose Bowl (also Notre Dame's only bowl game prior to 1970)
:: Notre Dame vs. Army - the 1913 game introduced the concept of a passing offense to the game of football; there arguably were a handful of games in prior years featuring a single forward lateral, or something similar; then, in this game, Notre Dame unleashed a bona fide passing offense for the first time in football history, with Notre Dame's Gus Dorais going 13 of 17 for 243 yards and 5 touchdowns, throwing to end Knute Rockne; playing under Coach Jesse Harper,
Notre Dame launched itself onto the national stage with a 35-13 blowout over a national power in which all five Notre Dame scores were through the air ...
... in 1924, the Notre Dame-Army game in the Bronx inspired the "Under a blue-gray October sky ..." article by a New York sportswriter resulting in the most famous Irish backfield earning its "Four Horsemen" nickname
... in 1928, Rockne gave his "win one for the Gipper speech" to inspire the only weak Notre Dame team of his tenure to upset national juggernaut Army ...
...
the 1946 game, after everybody was back from World War II, was a hard-fought 0-0 tie at Yankee Stadium, branded the Game of the Century, resulting in a Notre Dame national championship (with the championship disputed by Army) ...
... 52d game in the series ...
:: Notre Dame vs. Boston College - the second-winningest coach in college football history, Frank Leahy, coached at Boston College before building one of the greatest dynasties in sports history at Notre Dame (as an aside, Jesse Harper has a slightly higher winning percentage for Notre Dame coaching take by itself)
:: Notre Dame vs. Army, and Notre Dame vs. Michigan State - both feature match-ups that, at one time, had national championship-deciding games decided in a tie; Notre Dame and Army played to a 0-0 tie in 1946, with Notre Dame named national champion. Notre Dame and Michigan State played to a 10-10 tie in 1966, with Notre Dame once again named national champion.
:: Notre Dame, Stanford, Army (West Point), Navy (U.S. Naval Academy/Annapolis) - the four most prestigious institutions academically that also play big-time college football. All four are essentially top-10 academically. Notre Dame and Stanford are private institutions, of course, while West Point and Annapolis are national military service academies. Three of them are independents in football.
Notre Dame Football Schedule Strength and Coaching Change
We will have to wait until the 2009 regular season and bowls conclude, and next season gets underway, to see just precisely how difficult the 2010 schedule is. But suffice it to say, Notre Dame once again has drawn up a tough slate for itself.
Perhaps more interesting, with a few exceptions the schedule is heavily front-loaded. The first six games are all tough opponents, starting with Purdue and Michigan at home. Four of the first six opponents have beaten good Notre Dame teams in 2008 of 2009, and the two that have not beaten Notre Dame the past two years have beaten Ohio State and Southern Cal this year (2009; as of this writing, Notre Dame has not yet played Stanford).
The second six games are not at all easy. Western Michigan, Tulsa, and Army are alternated with Navy (who has beaten Notre Dame twice in three years), Utah (de facto national champion in 2008), and Southern Cal.
It would take a good team to simply go 7-5 against this schedule, a superlative team to go 9-3 and receive a bid to a major bowl, and an elite team to go 10-2 and make it into a so-called "BCS" bowl. With coaching continuity and a strengthening of the defense, Notre Dame could conceivably back its way into a BCS bowl or even a national title run. But with a coaching change, the new coach would have his hands full, and if that means disruptions to the offensive scheme and possible transfers or early departures, the season could turn into an adventure if Notre Dame undertakes a coaching change rashly.
Keywords: Notre Dame Football Schedule 2010, Notre Dame Football Television 2010, Notre Dame Football History, Notre Dame Football Rivalries
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