ND has announced its future scheduling format, effectively ending speculation about their becoming more involved with the NBE (sorry, TS2). They are expected to meet 8 teams on a fairly regular basis:

USC, Stanford, Michigan, Mich. St, Purdue, BC, Pitt and Navy

In addition, beginning in 2009 they will look for 3 schools per year to play at South Bend with no commitment for a return game. In that way 7 home games will be assured each year.

So, unless some NBE team caves and agrees to play only at ND, Pitt will be the only NBE team playing the Irish.

Westwolf, I am sure any thing that makes the BE football appear unstable is good to the eyes of the MWC or any other non BCS conference. It understandable the have nots always want the haves have. Your first big test comes up this evening.

I will state one thing, Notre Dame is getting more wishy washy every day. There are quotes from several news post that Notre Dame will only maintain Southern Cal and Navy for future schedules. This school needs to get a grip and let some new blood run things.

Notre Dame has no plans to join the Big East or Big 10 so the folks running the Big East know and understand this and always have known Notre Dame intentions. Notre Dame is very upfront and honorable in that sense compared to BC.

The issue with long term Notre Dame has to do with ability to remain in the BCS with special status and the ablity to share BE minor bowls.

With some many minor bowls available, the BE will have no issue mantaining 5 bowls for 8 teams. Minor bowls want to continue to have conference ties ins to ensure stability. They may not be the top minor bowls, however, below the BCS minor bowls are minor bowls with the exception of a very few New Years day bowls.

The problem for Notre Dame is ability to help the Big East keep the Gator Bowl.

Without the Gator bowl, there is not reason to keep any relationship with Big East football and Notre Dame.

This is a big risk for Notre Dame. They better get back up to top 10 status in hurry or its hello Big 10 and step child to Ohio State and Michigan.

It may surprise you that many Big East fans would just as well see the back side of Notre Dame.

Tigershark may be the exception.

Lash, I'm not sure why you keep associating me with the MWC. I have a vacation home in WY and find the MWC offensive style fb entertaining, but MD is my primary home. Having gone to Div III Williams, my IA rooting interest is the Terps.

I have nothing really against the NBE, but it has fallen far behind the top 5 and is not much stronger than the MWC or CUSA. Facts are facts.

Ceratainly Army or Rutgers or UConn ,UCinn etc will be wiiing to play at ND on a 2 for 1 basis and receive a payout of 1 million dollars. I never described the relationship with ND being equal.I think Army and Navy will have a 4 game BE relationship each with the BE football schools.I also think ND will have such a relationship with the BE 8 football schools but not on equal basis.Additionally ND will continue its relationship with Navy and re-start it relationship with Army in a manner they currently do with Navy ,with no real home games for either Army or Navy.

Westwolf, I seem to always have you out of place and sorry about that.

If you are going to adopt some team, Maryland is a good as any for football and basketball.

No question the 5 BCS conference are a step above the new Big East in football. The Big East was always rated the 6th best football conference and losing top Miami added some distance between the BCS conferences for now.

The issue I have with comparison of MWC and Conf USA to the new BE, the MWC and Conf USA have not competed at the same level as Pitt, Syracuse, WVU, Rutgers. Most of those schools would be hanging around the Rutgers level if they were part of the old Big East and played with the same players.

It is not like the BE was completly gutted and the conference took 8 non BCS members.

Would a Boise State have that nice record if the school had to play the old BE football schedule. I would like to see Boise State go to Miami, Morgantown, Syracuse and have all those road wins.

Pitt, Syracuse, and WVU have more than held their own over the last 20 years.

If a non BCS members win a BCS game before the new Big East, then and only then can you say they have caught up.

Isn't Stanford kind of new to this status as a regular for ND. The others I can see, but has ND been hanging with them for some time and I just haven't noticed?

Also, what are the prospects for ND ever playing Miami again? Not for or against, just trying to learn where these two schools stand. 7 home games aside, I'm just curious to see what they might do to maintain access to Florida fanbase and recruits, or if that doesn't matter.

Gunner, ND has been playing Stanford with regularity since 1988. They played 1988 thru 1994, took 2 years off then resumed the current series in 1997. Incidentally, if you haven't found it, here's a great site:

http://www.mcubed.net/ncaaf/series/series.htm


Regarding ND's plans, it's not clear whether they intend to play all 8 of those schools yearly, leaving 3 (or 4) spots open for home only games or whether they'll schedule most of the 8, leaving more than 3-4 spots open. In the first case even a 2-and-1 format as suggested by TS2 would not be available to NBE teams.

Hypothetically speaking, would UConn and Louisville have adequate "home" facilities to host Notre Dame? That being said, the Irish have played at Boston College (Alumni Stadium, not Foxboro), Syracuse, and West Virginia in recent years...however, these are much more "established" programs...

Some schools have ended up not playing Notre Dame due to a new conference affiliation and available open dates are gone. That could have been the situation with Miami, in part, and now BC, in part.
There are schools that will play Notre Dame at Notre Dame for the money, and not require a return game. However, that will be hard to do with schools in BCS conferences plus some others.
Notre Dame must have been suggesting their schedule was too demanding. So, they want to play more STANFORDS' and ARMIES', schools with great name recognition and respect, but are seldom dominating?

Notre Dame loses to BYU on the road and has Michigan next.

With so many televised games, and conferences becoming more shrewd agents in marketing, one has to wonder how successful and lucrative Notre Dame will be for the long term as an independent negotiator. If they win and become a BCS contender, then their independent football negotiations will survive very well. However, Notre Dame, as mediocre seasons continue, will have their elite status tarnished increasingly.

They have two nice options they will reject: The Big Ten and the Big East. The Big 10 will be wonderful with "academics" and the women's and olympic sports, and Notre Dame is in the "middle" of it. Is the down side the concern that they will become another "Northwestern" to a frequent Ohio State-Michigan dominance? Or, can they accept the fact that Purdue may be the toughest fb team in Indiana, let alone Notre Dame calling themselves "national"?
The Big East would be more simple in that they are already a conference member with bb, and the BE would probably allow Notre Dame priviledges in TV negotiations and scheduling. However, would Notre Dame want to take the risk of losing to L'ville, Cincy, USF, or UCONN? While Notre Dame has scheduled some schools that have been less competitive than these at times, they like to schedule age-old established names as part of a national schedule.

If MSU and Purdue are the givens for ND scheduling of Big Ten teams, then U-M sure shows up as a regular many years. Does anyone know why a school with a similiar status to Michigan in Irish scheduling (Northwestern) isn't more of a regular on ND's schedule.

The rivalry has always been there, athletically and as private universities, and the Chicago connection has always been strong.

Ironically enough, Northwestern and Notre Dame have not met since 1995, the year in which Northwestern beat Notre Dame for the first time since Ara Parseghian was coaching--at Northwestern. That being said, I'm sure that when they started scheduling Stanford on a semi-regular basis (1988), I'm sure that they expected results similar to the Northwestern series--not to be leading "only" 9-5 since then...

If Notre Dame has another losing season this year, the speculation will not be just on Tyrone's job future with the school. I expect in the off-season, some press reports will emerge with Notre Dame again flirting with "all sports" conference membership, but not going beyond that.

A new football coach and a weaker schedule.The schedule will include Army and Navy as well as 2-3 BE schools.

Could be, TS2, but it will cost them in buy-out fees if they do that. ND is already booked for next year & almost all of their schedule is committed for several years out.