Tag: Aviva stadium

Ranking the four Week 0 matchups in 2024 college football season

A look at Week 0, college football’s first four matchups of the 2024 season featuring Florida State and Georgia Tech in Dublin.

The 2024 College Football season is officially here. Four games are set to kick off this Saturday, August 24, as part of ‘Week 0’ ahead of a full slate of games the following week.

Week 0 opens with a conference matchup between ACC programs Florida State and Georgia Tech. The game kicks off at 12:00 PT ET and will take place at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. The ‘Noles are 11.5 point favorites after running through the ACC last season, but especially in an overseas game anything can happen.

Next on the schedule is New Mexico hosting Montana State on campus, with a 4:00 PM start on FS1. The Lobos are projected at or near the bottom in the Mountain West, and the Bobcats are favored by more than a touchdown here despite being an FCS program from the Big Sky.

What follows is another matchup involving a Mountain West school, with Nevada hosting new ACC foe SMU at Mackay Stadium in Reno starting at 8:00 PM ET. The Mustangs will be favored big in this one, and have a chance to set the tone regarding their status as a legit player in the ACC.

Finally, the night closes out in beautiful Hawaii, where the Rainbow Warriors host Delaware State out of the MEAC right at midnight ET. It could be an ugly day for the Mountain West, with both Nevada and New Mexico projected to lose, although Hawaii should hold the fort down at home and give the conference their first win of the season.

Fans will wet their beak with four games this Saturday, and five days later things fully get underway with 21 games slated for Thursday, August 29.

Notre Dame football releases its documentary on its 2023 trip to Ireland

It has been released Irish fans!

As you may have known, Notre Dame football has been working on a documentary on its most recent trip to Ireland where they faced Navy.

The Irish won fairly convincingly, but that didn’t matter much. It was all about the experience and history of Notre Dame returning to Ireland. It opens up with how this all started in 1996, and how well that turned out for the program.

Since the originally scheduled game happened during the COVID 2020 season, it was a big question if the game would be played. Obviously it did, and the behind the scenes planning was major.

The documentary goes over all aspects of the game, the trip, the activities the players got to participate in, and the aftermath.

The 30-minute video was released on YouTube, and you can watch it here.

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Notre Dame football will release documentary on its trip to Ireland on Monday

A must watch for Irish fans

Notre Dame football has been playing games in Ireland since 1996, when the Irish faced off against Navy in the [autotag]Shamrock Series[/autotag].

This past season Notre Dame once again faced the Midshipmen, with the Irish prevailing 42-3 in front of a crowd of 49,000 in Aviva Stadium. Not only did Notre Dame come back with a win, but they took plenty of behind the scenes videos as well.

On Monday, the Irish will release a full feature on their most recent trip to England, one that surely will be a fantastic watch. Personally, I love when you get to see behind the scenes action, as it really gives another insight into all of the inner-workings of a football team.

If you are like me, you’ll watch this shortly after it’s released on Monday at 6 p.m. EST.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (Formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

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What the experts are predicting: Notre Dame vs. Navy

Do you expected the one-sidedness of this rivalry to continue?

Notre Dame is facing longtime rival Navy in Ireland in Week 0 of the 2023 college football season. It only makes sense that we begin our series of football Saturdays with a matchup that goes back nearly a century with only one interruption. The people of the Emerald Isle will see this game on their turf for the third time, so they should know what to expect by now.

Let’s look at what some college football experts are predicting for this game:

What to know about the Husker’s opener in Dublin, Ireland

The start of the college football season is right around the corner.

We’re just 50 days away from the start of Nebraska’s 2022 college football season. The Huskers will travel across the Atlantic to take on the Northwestern Wildcats in Dublin, Ireland, for the Aer Lingus Classic. According to game organizers in Dublin, about 30,000 tickets have been sold to this point. Nebraska fans have purchased almost 9,000 tickets, while Northwestern supporters have purchased around 3,000. The game committee believes that the stadium should be about 75% filled for the game.

Aviva Stadium is the host of this year’s overseas Big Ten clash. The stadium officially opened in 2010 and cost approximately 410 million euros. The facility’s capacity is 51,700, but for American football, it holds 49,000. It’s also the home of the Ireland National Football (soccer) Team and the Irish Rugby Union Team. This will be the third American Football game played in Aviva Stadium. In 2012 the Notre Dame Fighting Irish defeated the Navy Midshipman, and in 2016 Georgia Tech beat Boston College 17-14. (Yikes!) This won’t be the last game either, as, in 2023, the Fighting Irish and Midshipmen will once again play on the Emerald Isle.

 

Notre Dame football is headed back to Ireland!

The Irish will once again hit the rocky road to Dublin…

Notre Dame football is headed back to Ireland!

The Irish and their opponent this week, Navy, will open the 2023 football season across the pond as the two will meet at Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

Notre Dame and Navy met in Ireland twice previously, once in 1996 and most recently in 2012.  The 2012 game was the season-opener for the Irish as they would go 12-0 that regular season and eventually play in the BCS national championship.

A look back: Notre Dame’s 2012 trip to Dublin to take on Navy

The 2020 season was supposed to begin with Notre Dame and Navy squaring off again in Dublin but the COVID-19 pandemic caused that game to be moved to the United States before eventually being cancelled altogether.

Notre Dame and Navy will kickoff the 2023 season on August 26 in a game that will technically be a Fighting Irish home game and air on NBC.

Related:  Notre Dame’s future schedules and opponents

Lack of Logic Surrounding Notre Dame/Navy in Ireland

Notre Dame and Navy are to play in late August in Dublin. A recent Ireland ban however makes no sense and leaves us w/o game resolution yet.

As you’re aware Notre Dame is scheduled to start the 2020 college football season in Dublin, Ireland in what is now known as Week Zero in the sport. The last Saturday in August is currently set to see Notre Dame take on Navy at Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

Last week news came out that Dublin was banning gatherings of 5000 people or more through August.  We covered that and told you the news that will be coming at some point because of that.

Now we sit here with you almost an entire week later and we have no news.  Still.

In fact Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk is insisting that the game is still on:

“it is way too early to speculate on what happens in the season opener.  Let’s just wait and see what happens. We’re in no hurry to make a final decision.” – Navy AD Chet Gladchuk to Annapolis Gazette

Uhh, Chet.  This isn’t all that complicated.

We sit here on the evening of April 27 with no real end in sight to the stoppage of sports aside from golf being played anytime soon.  Some colleges are already planning on having their fall classes be conducted all online and not at their campuses but there is still plenty of time?

I didn’t understand in the article that the Ireland government told Gladchuk that the Ireland ban on 5000 or more in a gathering doesn’t currently apply to sporting events.  So you mean to tell me that coronavirus is a big sports fan and is willing to keep to itself and not spread at a sporting event?

Logic would tell you that ruling or way of thinking will change before long.  Then would you send both teams across the Atlantic Ocean to play a football game in front of a minimal amount of fans?

I’m guessing not.

Incredibly dumb logic here for Ireland to have a different set of rules for mass gatherings for sporting events compared to non-sporting events.

I wish I was wrong but it’s just a matter of time until this game is unfortunately moved to the states.  Now let’s just hope that’s all it is and not cancelled or pushed back significantly.