Alabama vs. Notre Dame in Orlando Wouldn't Work

by Nico2.0 on Jul 21, 2007 3:06 AM CDT in Football

It wasn't too long ago that Nick Saban publicly stated that he wanted the Crimson Tide to play Notre Dame. Fighting Irish associate athletic director John Heisler quickly replied saying that Notre Dame doesn't have space on their schedule given a new contract with the Big East to play three teams from that conference every year. Then there is their long standing games against Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, and the U.S. Coast Guard Thursday Night League Co-Ed Flag Football Team.

ND blogger OC Domer suggests that Notre Dame use one of the dates they recently scheduled at the Citrus Bowl (2011 & 2014) to take on Alabama. There would be need to be some major issues addressed though for this to work.

OC Domer is on the right track here, but doesn't take it quite far enough:

Of course, the finances would have to worked out. I know Notre Dame envisions these games as virtual home games from a revenue standpoint, and 'Bama may not want to travel to Orlando for a regular visitor's share of the cash. But the marquee nature of this match-up means the Irish could give up a little revenue to the Tide and still get a nice payday.

Give up a little revenue? There is no way Alabama is going into a one off game for an appearance fee, even if it is against Notre Dame.

As appealing as the idea of playing ND in one of these open spots is, it is largely unworkable though because we already have out of conference road games in 2011 (at Penn State) and 2014 (at Georgia Tech) and I don't see us playing six road games in a year. I think only playing four road games a year is too little, but playing six is way too much. The only way the 2011 or 2014 dates could even conceivably work would be to do a 50/50 revenue split (which would also include splitting the tickets evenly) since that would leave us with only six home games.

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Comments

If they're scared...

I wish they would just come out and admit it.

by Nose Guard on Jul 21, 2007 7:45 AM CDT reply actions

I don't think it's a matter...

...of "scared" so much as a matter of "greedy."

by Todd on Jul 21, 2007 10:27 AM CDT up reply actions

Notre-Dame = Greedy

They won't join a conference for two reasons - the money they get from Adidas and NBC, and the strength of schedule would skyrocket. Sorry, they have three difficult teams; USC, Michigan, and MSU, who is not really tough year in/out, but always seem to play ND tough. An SEC school typically has 6 or 7 difficult games, if not more, when counting rival SEC schools and non-conference opponents.

"FAILURE" - When your best just isn't good enough

by BamaReturns07 on Jul 21, 2007 10:33 AM CDT up reply actions

notre dame's scedule

their schedule is pretty tough this year with Georgia Tech, at Penn St., at Mich, Mich. St., at Purdue, at UCLA, Boston College, AND USC...they might have the hardest schedule in the nation

by RunBama on Jul 23, 2007 12:42 AM CDT reply actions