A Neutral Site Game Against Tech or Alabama In the Works?
On a little bit of a more positive scheduling note, Tony Barnhart of the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported yesterday that Notre Dame could be looking at scheduling one of the neutral site games in Atlanta.
Gary Stokan, the much traveled president of the Atlanta Sports Council, was here over the weekend talking to Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick. The subject? Trying to get the globetrotting Fighting Irish to consider Atlanta for one of their neutral site games.
Notre Dame likes to play neutral site games in order to help recruiting. The Irish are playing Navy at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. in 2010, Baylor in New Orleans in 2012, and Arizona State in Arlington, Tex., in 2013. Today the school will announce that it will play Army at the new Yankee Stadium in 2010.
Stokan made the pitch for Notre Dame to consider Atlanta for one of these trips. The word I got here is that the Irish might consider it for a chance to play a Georgia Tech or an Alabama.
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A matchup with either opponent, especially Alabama, might calm down the masses on the Notre Dame blogs and forums if these talks came to fruition. The biggest problem in setting up either game will most likely be whether the game would be considered a home game for Notre Dame. If it was a home game, as the other neutral site games are, then NBC would get the broadcasting rights to such a game. Will Georgia Tech or Alabama be able to participate in such a game with their conference broadcast deals would be the question.
Considering it looks like Notre Dame is on the verge of adding both Tulsa and TCU to the schedule, I hope Jack Swarbrick does whatever he can to make a game with Alabama happen. Last year I wrote an article imploring Notre Dame to do whatever it took to set up a game against Alabama after Nick Saban mentioned that he would love to add Notre Dame to the Crimson Tide’s schedule.
A Notre Dame-Alabama game would be one of the biggest games of the college football season and would have the atmosphere of a bowl game regardless of when in the season it was played. The Irish and Crimson Tide have only played each other 6 times, but that brief history includes some classic games such as the 1973 Sugar Bowl which clinched Ara Parseghian’s second national championship at Notre Dame and the 1975 Orange Bowl.
While I am not of the thinking that Notre Dame needs to schedule top 10 opponents every week, I do see some of the recent schedule additions as boring as a fan. Adding Alabama would certainly not be boring and would show that Notre Dame is indeed committed to playing a tough regular season schedule.
Frank Vitovitch has been Co-Owner and Editor in Chief of UHND.com since joining forces with Kyle Flavin in 1999. Since that time, he has written over 2,000 articles covering Notre Dame football, recruiting, and basketball. He also works with all staff and external writers on all articles published on UHND.com. Frank's love for Notre Dame football started at a young age watching Rocket Ismail give opposing coaches ulcers in the late 1980's. By day Frank works in marketing and holds a degree in Digital Media from Drexel University. Frank's work has been cited by online/print editions of NBC Sports, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated and has been quoted on air by ESPN's Collin Cowherd. He's conducted interviews with Notre Dame legends Rocket Ismail, Randy Kinder, Lee Becton, Reggie Brooks, Michael Stonebreaker, and Ned Bolcar among others over his 20+ years of covering Notre Dame football. He's also been published in the print edition of USA Today Sports Weekly and the USA Today College Football Preview multiple times. Other Published Works/Citations for Frank Three Reasons Notre Dame Will Beat Alabama - USA Today Notre Dame Suspends WR Kevin Stepherson, RB C.J. Holmes Indefinitely - Bleacher Report Notre Dame / Ohio State Fiesta Bowl Preview - Eleven Warriors Brace Yourself: The Fighting Irish are Relevant Again - Sports on Earth Interviews with the Enemy: A Q&A with Frank Vitovitch of UHND - Yahoo! Sports Five Good Minutes: Notre Dame Football Preview With UHND.com - BC Interruption Vicious Electronic Questioning with UHND - MGO Blog
I’d rather see the Irish play Auburn, but that’s because my wife is an alum from there….but it would make for some great gameday atmosphere and trash talkin’ to the boss!!
i believe we are playing arizona state in the cowboys new stadium shazamrock in 2013.
How about a Neutral site game in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Maybe agianst Texas or Houston. Reminiscent of those great Cotton Bowls of the late 70’s that featured Joe Theismen and Joe Montana? Might be just the thing to get the Cotton Bowl back in the BCS where it belongs
Frankie – correction. ND has played ‘Bama six times, losing at Birmingham in ’86. That was the game that featured the infamous hit on Steve Beuerlein by Cornelius Bennett.
ND is 5-1 against ‘Bama; 4-0 against Bear.
While I understand it would be nice to schedule another power like USC, we have to be mindful that too much power would bring us down. Everyone knows the tradition and everyone plays ND tough, even the little guys. Only ND fans see this and it is impossible to explain it to an ND hater, but it is a fact! We have to be ready to play for every opponent because they all want to say “I beat ND”. I don’t mind us taking the Ohio State approach to scheduling, where we schedule a big game early and cupcakes the rest of the year because if critics say your schedule is easy you can say, “hey we played Texas or USC” Even if they lose this game it is still early in the year and they are right in the national championship discuss by year end! This is why when they get to the championship they get destroyed. I am not saying ND should always take this approach, but a couple years of solid winning would help out with recruiting, the monkey on Weis’s back, and make us fans smile more!
Since when is playing a team in their home city a “neutral site” game? Ga Tech in Atlanta isn’t neutral in any sense of the word–at least ‘Bama fans have to travel 1 state over. GT is in Atlanta, for crying out loud. It’d be like playing USC at the Rose Bowl instead of the Colisseum–big deal. Go Swarbrick, get the Bama deal done, or another team besides GT. UGA, anyone??