Tag: Independent

Notre Dame football officially back to independence

In the worst kept secret of all time, Notre Dame football is OFFICIALLY going back to being independent in 2021.

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The ACC made official what we all expected Thursday as the conference announced that football will return in September of 2021 with an eight-game conference schedule for all member-schools.

Notre Dame will return to being independent as we all expected would happen and the ACC will again be split into the Atlantic and Coastal divisions, both comprising of seven teams.

Notre Dame is still scheduled to play five ACC opponents in 2021 with those games being the following:

Sept 5 – at Florida State
Oct. 9 – at Virginia Tech
Oct. 30 – vs. North Carolina
Nov. 13 – at Virginia
Nov. 20 – vs. Georgia Tech

Also noted in the ACC’s release is that:

The league membership also elected to play the 2021 season as it was originally scheduled and as a result, there are several repeat site games from 2019 and 2020. Each ACC team will play six division games, one permanent crossover opponent and one rotating opponent from the opposite division.

And that:

The return to a traditional schedule is contingent on national, state and local health guidelines allowing such competition to occur.

As it was announced today, the ACC will have teams playing on each day between Thursday, Sept. 2, through Sunday, Sept. 5 on college football’s opening weekend.

With the official news, now maybe Notre Dame’s social media team will follow through with something they teased back in September…

Related:

An early look at Notre Dame’s 2021 football schedule

Notre Dame’s future football schedules and opponents

All of this week’s canceled college football games

Here’s the on-going updated list of the college football games that have been canceled for this coming weekend

College football is getting by in what continues to be the strangest year any of us have ever seen and probably ever will see, God willing.

As the year has gone on the outbreaks of COVID-19 have as well, leaving many to wonder if coaches are finding convenient ways to get out of blowouts and help save their jobs, while others can’t preach safety enough.

What I do know is that as crazy as this year has been, I’m happy that it was at least given a try instead of simply punting on the year.  It’s been far from perfect but we all knew that would be the case when the season was ultimately saved.

With that, here are is your current list of games that have been called off for this weekend, as of December 3, 2020:

Friday, Dec. 4:
Southern Mississippi at UTEP
Boise State at UNLV

Saturday, Dec. 5:
Northwestern at Minnesota
Kent State at Miami (OH)
Maryland at Michigan

Also worth noting and I’ll be doing a piece praising BYU for getting this done as well, is that BYU and Coastal Carolina were able to get a game for Saturday scheduled on short notice after Liberty was unable to play due to COVID-19 concerns.

It’s a huge addition of a game for BYU who hasn’t gotten respect from the College Football Playoff committee to date and it’s a move that makes loud-mouths like myself have to shut their mouth and instead tip our caps in the direction of Provo, Utah.

BYU’s bluff called, dash own College Football Playoff dreams

BYU will have nobody to blame but themselves when they don’t play in the College Football Playoff next month.

It wasn’t likely that BYU would do enough to make the College Football Playoff in 2020 but you can certainly cross it off even as a remote possibility after what transpired Sunday evening.

BYU, who sits at 9-0 overall and is ranked in the top 10 nationally, had their bluff called on Sunday and will now have nobody to blame but themselves when they ultimately don’t make the College Football Playoff this winter.

For context, we actually have to go back a few days to set the stage, as the Pac-12 announced Wednesday that they would allow each conference member to schedule one out of conference game, adding some wiggle-room to only a six-game regular-season schedule for those who don’t make the conference championship game.

When that was announced there was hope an interest that a few intriguing games would be added to the 2020 college football slate, but one that was proposed since the announcement won’t be played and not doing so is making BYU look foolish.

According to reports from several in the college football community, The University of Washington reached out to BYU on Saturday about scheduling a game later this year.

The Huskies are 2-0 on the year with only two games being played to date and only two games currently scheduled for the rest of the year.  Although not viewed as a College Football Playoff contender themselves, they’d certainly offer a chance for BYU to have another name win on their resume that they hope is good enough to earn them a trip to the CFP.

According to Bruce Feldman, BYU essentially said “thanks but no thanks” to Washington’s offer because they’d like to first know where they sit in the first College Football Playoff Rankings that are due out Tuesday evening.

Here’s a hint for everyone in and around Provo, Utah:

You’ll probably be eighth just like you are in both the AP and Amway Coaches Polls and you’ll be behind another Group of Five team in Cincinnati, just like you are in the AP and Coaches.

Even with Heisman contender, Zach Wilson, BYU needs a good amount of help building their resume if they think they have any shot at crashing the CFP party, and not taking Washington up on their offer does them no favors in that regard.

Even if they were to schedule Washington and win they’d still have an uphill battle but passing on an opponent of even that caliber will kill whatever chances BYU had of making the dance.

Ralph Russo of the AP reports that BYU has concerns over potentially being dropped by Washington if another Pac-12 game was to be made available to them on the same date.

Let me just ask, though:  what if there wasn’t a Pac-12 team that suddenly became available to play for Washington?

It makes BYU look laughable as they tweeted a picture of Wilson on November 20 wearing a bandana that read: “any team, any time, any place”

Except for if they’re a Power Five team who has a history of winning.

Then they’re not for that.

Remember this if and when BYU finishes the season undefeated yet you hear moans that they didn’t get a fair shake about playing in the College Football Playoff.

They’ve got nobody to blame but themselves for looking this foolish.

Notre Dame Football: Report suggests more annual ACC games to come

Both Notre Dame and ACC have a football fling, but neither appear racing to change their Facebook relationship statuses, either.

If you’ve followed us at Fighting Irish Wire at pretty much any point over the last year or so you’re aware that we refer to Notre Dame’s football relationship with the ACC as a “friends with benefits” situation.

Notre Dame gets six games annually but keeps their independence while the ACC gets Notre Dame on the schedule for six of their teams each year.  The Irish then belong to the conference for every other sport the rest of the year.

Both Notre Dame and ACC have a football fling, but neither appear racing to change their Facebook relationship statuses, either.

According to a report from SI’s Wolverine Digest, Notre Dame staying at six games with the ACC when things return to normal, might not be a given.

From the Wolverine Digest report:

“Notre Dame really wanted to play and was willing to enter into an agreement that could lead to something down the road … at the very least, more games every year against ACC teams,” an insider shared. “They’re adamance about playing was the ace-in-the-hole a group, led by Clemson, needed to really push for a season and turn the tide in favor of ignoring the Big Ten. 

“I mean, if Notre Dame, with their academic reputation and their national brand, was willing to go forward … it sort of just sealed the ACC’s fate.”

– Wolverine Digest Staff Report 8/26/2020

There isn’t clarification as to whether that means simply adding a seventh ACC game to Notre Dame’s schedule soon or if it means that Notre Dame has promised to join the conference as a full-time member down the road.

Is the entire ACC only on board with playing football in 2020 because it means that Notre Dame MIGHT one day decide to lose it’s independence?

That seems a bit far-fetched to me.

For instance – if Duke, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia Tech and Florida State are that set on following the Big Ten’s lead, Notre Dame offering to play more ACC football down the road makes them change their beliefs?

I’m not buying it.

There are a lot more questions from this report than there necessarily are answers – one being why Notre Dame pushing for football, something the Michigan football program is said to have also wanted for this season, is another reason to hate them like this piece flat-out says:

And if you’re looking for another reason to hate Notre Dame, now you have it.

-Wolverine Digest Staff Report 8/26/2020

I won’t sit and question the entire validity of the report, they’ve got to have someone in Chicago and Ann Arbor like they say, if they’re willing to go to press with this.

However, to me this feels like this is written a lot more as a piece trying to throw a life-raft to the Big Ten and its commissioner for the conference overestimating it’s own power than actually accepting any blame for a decision that is only being questioned more and more by the day.

What I do know is that Notre Dame seems a lot more open to the idea of one day joining a conference than it ever has been, but that that decision is anything but imminent, too.

This is compelling and thought-provoking, no doubt – I’m just not too certain it all adds up.

Stay tuned to Fighting Irish Wire for anything else that develops off of this and everything else related to Notre Dame as always.

Desmond Howard shows bitterness over Notre Dame’s independence

At least Desmond Howard knows his opinion on Notre Dame shouldn’t count for anything.

I put about as much stock in whatever it is Desmond Howard has to say about Notre Dame as I did whenever Mark May would discuss them years ago on ESPN.

I don’t have proof of this but I’m fairly certain the 1991 Heisman Trophy winner has never actually said a kind thing about Notre Dame.

That was again the case Friday morning when Howard was a part of an ESPN panel that discussed what happens with college football’s season if out of conference games are canceled across the board.

Of course Notre Dame got brought up and of course Howard had thoughts.

“I might not be the best guy to ask this question to because I’ve always felt that Notre Dame was always given this special pass and they just enjoy this independence, and that they never had to join a conference”

“So now if this ends up being a situation that we do have a season and under the guidelines that people are talking now where it’s just people will play within their conference, and they’re left out in the cold because of decisions that they made, not to ever join the conference when they had the opportunity to join the ACC, then I think that’s their problem. It’s just coming back to bite them in the butt. So I don’t have a problem with a team or school that thought they are beyond joining the conference, and now because teams are playing within their conference that they get left out in the cold.” – Desmond Howard on ESPN – July 10, 2020

Just a kind reminder to Mr. Howard that Notre Dame tried to join a conference for years and years but it was your beloved University of Michigan that kept that from happening.  Then Notre Dame became a money making machine in the world of college football and Michigan and the Big Ten suddenly wanted them in.

I’m not going to lie, I get a lot of enjoyment when Notre Dame’s independence angers the masses like it has, does and will continue to do for years and years to come.

Notre Dame Football: Future BYU Matchup

Much has been made recently of Notre Dame’s future schedule as we learned last week they’d be paying Cal 1.9 million dollars for a contest at Notre Dame Stadium in 2022. On that same note we received a bit of information about another future …

Much has been made recently of Notre Dame’s future schedule as we learned last week they’d be paying Cal 1.9 million dollars for a contest at Notre Dame Stadium in 2022.

On that same note we received a bit of information about another future opponent for the Fighting Irish, as BYU’s athletic director made it known that Notre Dame still owes BYU a home game (at BYU).

Or at least a game where BYU wears the home uniforms.

Notre Dame hasn’t played BYU since the 2012 and 2013 seasons as both games were played in South Bend. That was originally set to be a six game series that was cut down to three after Notre Dame announced its sweetheart deal with the ACC.

However, that third game in which BYU is to be the home team still hasn’t been scheduled.

Because of the proximity to Las Vegas and the brand new Raiders stadium being completed there a lot of belief is that the game could and should be played there. Obviously Notre Dame enjoys NFL venues, if you don’t believe just look at their schedule this coming season.

But as Jude from over at One Foot Down points out, the game potentially being played in Vegas makes sense for another reason.

I’m not as worried about Notre Dame crossing off the 50 states checklist but the amount of passionate Catholics or Mormons in the area doesn’t hurt the cause.

I’m all for it being in Vegas for two reasons:

1) How many NFL venues or trips does Notre Dame play in that feel unique or special? Their first time playing in Las Vegas would absolutely accomplish that.

2) I’m team “Avoid Provo, Utah at all costs.”

Nothing against the fine folks who live there but it given the choice of playing there, where strange things just tend to happen (see 2004 opener or ask USC & Boise State about last year) or in Las Vegas, it’s an easy answer for me, 21 times out of 21.

Notre Dame and BYU have met eight times on the gridiron with the first in the series being played in 1992. The Irish lead the all-time series 6-2. Six of the games have been played in Notre Dame Stadium while the Irish have twice made the trip west to Provo, splitting those two contests (1993 and 2004).