Earlier this week Brian Kelly made the media rounds. On his stop with Mike Tirico on NBCSN, he mentioned that Notre Dame’s neutral site games in NFL stadiums may be moving back to college campuses in 2020.
That’s not the case for at least one of those games.
At least not yet.
Notre Dame’s contest at Wake Forest is scheduled to be played September 26 in Charlotte instead of at Wake’s home field. Despite what Kelly told Tirico, Wake Forest’s athletic director says otherwise.
From the Winston-Salem Journal:
“We’re all ahead on Charlotte, excited about the opportunity,” Currie said. “Candidly, the demand for tickets would far exceed what we can fill at BB&T Field, especially if we have to take — as we would assume now — some sort of social distancing parameters.
“We’ll continue to evaluate the situation and obviously be in communication with (Athletics Director) Jack Swarbrick and the Notre Dame department.” – John Currie, Wake Forest Athletic Director
Bank of America Field in Charlotte has a capacity of nearly 2.5 times that of Wake Forest’s home, BB&T Field. Even if only half capacity at games is allowed this football season the game would likely draw a larger crowd in Charlotte with those restrictions than it would on a regular game day at Wake Forest.
Swarbrick, Kelly and the rest of the Notre Dame athletic department might be trying to move games back to college campuses but it certainly doesn’t seem like that’s happening.
At least not yet.