Say the Pac 12 or California-based colleges don’t play football this season like many are suggesting. We brought it up earlier in the week when USC head coach Clay Helton and Stanford’s David Shaw mentioned the possibility.
If that happens then Notre Dame will have a pair of empty spaces on their 2020 schedule with two annual rivals either delayed or not playing football at all. So who does Notre Dame potentially replace them with?
Pete Fiutak over at College Football News brought up that exact topic in his recent piece, “15 possible college football games if there’s no Pac 12 season”. In it, Fiutak proposes a pair of potential replacement games for Notre Dame in 2020.
Hawaii at Notre Dame, Nov. 28
Current Scheduled Games
Hawaii at San Diego State, Nov. 28
Notre Dame at USC, Nov. 28This is a no-brainer. Notre Dame avoids a road game – which might matter in a big way; more on that later on this list – and Hawaii has to fly a little further. The two last played in the 2008 Hawaii Bowl – a 49-21 Irish win – and it would be the fourth meeting all-time between the two. Notre Dame is 3-0.
Some of us are old enough to remember Notre Dame finishing the 1991 and 1997 regular seasons on the islands while almost all of us recall the 2008 Hawaii Bowl that ended in victory both on the field and off, as plenty of efforts were spent recruiting Manti Te’o during that time.
How about Hawaii making that trip in late November, though? USC refuses to come north after mid-October, I can’t begin to imagine what a Hawaii football team would look like in South Bend a couple days after Thanksgiving.
The second Fiutak proposal:
Notre Dame at Texas A&M, Oct. 10
Current Scheduled Games
Stanford at Notre Dame, Oct. 10
Fresno State at Texas A&M, Oct. 10This has to happen, but only if Notre Dame buys into the idea of traveling to College Station. No way, no chance that Texas A&M goes to South Bend with a a date in Arlington against Arkansas and a trip to Mississippi State the two weeks before October 10th, and road games at Auburn and South Carolina to follow.
Notre Dame, though, would be coming off of away games against Wake Forest and Wisconsin – playing in Green Bay – and have to travel to Pitt the week after. However, there’s an open date on October 24th to rest up.
It’s one of those dream-type match-ups as adding Texas A&M to the 2020 slate would be quite the bump from what Stanford is expected to be this fall. However, good luck getting Notre Dame to agree to that. The Irish would be going from a September 19 date with Western Michigan until Halloween afternoon against Duke without playing at home. I don’t know what the record is for longest amount of time between true-home games in a season but I’m guessing Jack Swarbrick and Brian Kelly aren’t too interested in chasing or breaking it.
I’ll go out on a limb and guess that one’s not going to be happening unless someone can manage to find a neutral site to host it but even that would be a significant upset to me seeing as it’d still mean a month and a half away from Notre Dame Stadium.
I do like the sudden feel of the “NCAA Football” video game though where you set your own schedule right before the year.