When the MAC canceled their football season just over a week ago it was the first of what became multiple conferences to do so over the next couple days.
For Notre Dame and a couple other ACC programs it meant that the “plus one” part of the schedule needed reworked as the Irish were set to host Western Michigan of the MAC on September 19.
With that game canceled it doesn’t appear an announcement of a replacement opponent appears anything near imminent.
Irish Illustrated reports that the game may not even be filled and instead, Notre Dame would play only their ten scheduled ACC contests.
Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick is quoted in the piece by longtime Notre Dame beat reporter Tim Prister, saying:
“While the Big Ten and the Pac-12 made their final decisions on the fall, we made the decision to practice today…that gives us some leeway as the start of the season approaches.”
As Prister’s piece mentions, Notre Dame’s open game would have to be played against a member of the American Athletic Conference, Conference USA or Sun Belt as those three have no current restrictions on travel or out-of-conference games.
Army, BYU and Liberty are also possibilities as they’re the three remaining independents playing football this fall.
I have trouble believing that if Notre Dame wants to fill that open date that it wouldn’t be able to given the possible suitors.
Before you ask “what good would beating up a bad Sun Belt team do for anyone?” Ive already got your answer:
For the football team it’d provide nothing more than a Saturday afternoon to work some kinks out.
For NBC it’d be another Saturday to be able to sell a Notre Dame game, specifically on a weekend that the SEC isn’t scheduled to play on.