The only real double take upon seeing the release for me is that Stanford remains a night game.
Notre Dame’s home schedule for the 2020 season has long been known but kickoff times however were not. At least not until Friday when the team and NBC Sports announced the kickoff times for all seven home games this season.
Of those seven, six will be played at Notre Dame Stadium while the Shamrock Series makes a return at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, when Notre Dame takes on Wisconsin this October.
Here’s how the scheduled home slate looks time wise:
Sept. 12 – Arkansas, 2:30 ET
Sept. 19 – Western Michigan, 2:30 ET
Oct. 3 – Wisconsin (Shamrock Series, Green Bay, WI), 7:30 ET
Oct. 10 – Stanford, 7:30 ET
Oct. 31 – Duke, 3:30 ET
Nov. 7 – Clemson, 7:30 ET
Nov. 21 – Louisville, 2:30 ET
As expected the matchups with Wisconsin and Clemson will both be in primetime. The Shamrock Series game has always been a primetime affair while Clemson being far and away the biggest of home opponents for Notre Dame this season gets the evening kickoff.
The only real double take upon seeing the release for me is that Stanford remains a night game. I know there have been some classics in this matchup but with the Cardinal seemingly on the decline I’m surprised to see NBC having interest putting this game in primetime. Why it may make sense though is that the slate of national games for that October 10 day doesn’t appear great at night, meaning ratings could benefit despite a not great matchup:
Texas/Oklahoma is always a noon ET kickoff while Clemson/Florida State, Ohio State/Iowa, and Michigan/Michigan State all appear to be lopsided matchups from this far out.
The SEC has a couple big games that week with Auburn and Georgia doing battle and LSU taking on Florida but it is hard to imagine CBS not choosing its one primetime SEC game for the year to not include Alabama or LSU for a second consecutive season as that honor went to Notre Dame and Georgia in 2019.
