Jerry World – Syndication Server

Notre Dame vs. Alabama in Week One?

With the rearranging going on in college football scheduling, could Notre Dame and Alabama be meeting up? One man with some power says yes.

Everything is clearly up in the air in regards to college football in 2020. As Notre Dame fans know, cancellations of all out-of-conference games by the Big Ten and Pac-12 in the last week or so have created quite the fallout in terms of scheduling.

That’s not just for Notre Dame but for literally any team that was scheduled to play a Big Ten or Pac-12 foe out-of-conference this fall.

Another team that lost their date with USC is Alabama, who had their week one fling in Dallas cancelled. However, according the President and CEO of the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl, a replacement for USC might come in the form of Notre Dame.

Gary Stoken of the Chic Fil A Kickoff Classic said on the show that Notre Dame has been floated as a week one opponent for Alabama in South Bend, Tuscaloosa or Dallas…and there is a scenario that Virginia-Va Tech play in Atlanta if ACC/SEC goes "Conference +1" schedule

— Thom Abraham (@thomabrahamshow) July 17, 2020

Gary Stokan is the President and CEO of the Chick-Fil-A Bowl and the annual Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game and is a man that would at least certainly know if those conversations have been had. He made those comments above on the Thom Abraham Show on Friday afternoon.

Brian Kelly admitted earlier this week that Notre Dame wasn’t worried about filling out a schedule because their “phone was ringing off the hook” with different schools looking to add the Irish.

Was Alabama or the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game one of those calls?

I both love and hate the idea of potentially playing Alabama in the first week of the season.

I love it because of what Brian Kelly and many others have said about scheduling at Notre Dame – the three A’s:

Anybody, anytime, anywhere.

Powerhouse Alabama in Week One in Tuscaloosa, South Bend or Dallas would certainly fit that mold.

And it provides a chance for a marquee win right out of the shoot, something Notre Dame has had very few of in recent decades.

But it could also end in a loss, either a heart-breaker or complete blowout, that could send the 2020 season into a tailspin quickly.

As intimidating as it would be to see Alabama in Week One of the regular season, why run from it?

If the goal is a national championship, you’ve got to get by Alabama or the SEC Champion at some point anyway. Why not do that to start the year?

For now I’ll just hope we get college football in any capacity this year before I start the “We Want Bama!” chants.

No Stanford or USC for Notre Dame This Year?

Notre Dame has built big-time rivalries with USC and Stanford over the years. Now the Pac-12 says those games may be skipped in 2020 – read

Notre Dame and USC have developed the best inter-sectional rivalry in college football, 91 times since 1926 with the schools each having seven Heisman Trophy winners in that time, which with Ohio State is as many as any program in college football history.

Notre Dame and Stanford began playing annually in 1988 (aside from a hiatus in ’96 and ’96) and have developed a strong rivalry over the last few decades as well.

Now both might be off Notre Dame’s schedule in 2020 if what was discussed by the Pac-12 on Monday ends up playing out as the Pac-12 has had talks about it’s member schools only playing games against each other this college football season.

“It’s been discussed in our Pac-12 meetings, and it’s been discussed by the commissioners,” USC head coach Clay Helton said via video conference call on Monday.

“That is one of the many structures as we go through this situation and this crisis that is a possibility of an all-conference schedule,” Helton said. “That is one of the structures under discussion, depending on where we are at six to eight weeks from now. Those are viable discussions, and it has been brought up in our meetings.”

You can say a lot of things about USC but saying they’re afraid to schedule big-time opponents is not one of them. Not only would that wipe away the annual Notre Dame game this year, it’d also mean the USC opener against Alabama to be played in Arlington, Texas would be waived off.

In order to find a solution for college football in 2020, Stanford head coach David Shaw says there is one rather important figure in the United States that will likely ultimately have to offer their opinion.

“I think the president of the United States is going to have a weigh-in, and I think every state governor is going to have a weigh-in”

“I think every president, provost, chancellor is going to have a weigh-in. There may be a scenario to where campuses are partially open, and if we can bring back athletes and bring back a section of the student body, that may not be exactly what Mr. Emmert is talking about, but that may be good for a certain university. They may feel they’re comfortable and ready to resume part of their normal activities and still field teams for fall sports, and not just football, then I think that’s going to be acceptable.”

This situation is about as fluid as fluid gets. Helton mentioned that everyone will know a lot more in six weeks and he’s right – although that puts us at almost the end of June which means a decision will just about be due in terms of starting on time because pre-season team workouts would have to be taking place.

I’m all for safety and for coronavirus infecting as few people as we can possibly make it but can someone explain to me why it’d be OK for Washington to make a trip to play at Arizona (1526 miles) but Southern California wouldn’t be able to travel to Arlington to take on Alabama (1435 miles)? Do we really think that would limit the spread of anything?

I credit the Pac-12 for trying to find a solution and for being open while doing so but this life-raft appears to have a couple of holes in it from a far.

If it’s what ultimately has to be done then that’s better than no sports or no football, I think we can all agree.

No Notre Dame and USC one fall though?

That’s like ordering a pizza without cheese.

Penn State punter spends uses Cotton Bowl prep time to bounce footballs off Jerry World Jumbotron

Penn State’s kicker had some extra Christmas fun with the Jumbotron at Jerry World. Jordan Stout showed off his target shooting, Tweeting a (now-deleted) video of him punting three footballs at the mega-sized video board that hangs over the field at AT&T Stadium. Stout tweeted “Sorry @dallascowboys I didn’t mean to hit your TV.. #MerryChristmas.” The Nittany Lions (10-2) take on the Memphis Tigers (12-1) in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Tex. Saturday.