How Many Primetime Games Will Notre Dame Play In 2015?
Irish may need to wear their sunglasses at night
A Saturday when Notre Dame is playing night game is by far my favorite day of the year. Seriously, it’s like a holiday in the Shields household. But, I never really appreciated Notre Dame playing in primetime until I went to college and discovered how magical it is. Day games are fine, but when you get to indulge in a few adult beverages all day up until kickoff, there’s nothing really better in the fall.
Now, let’s take into consideration that the Disney Company has the same sentiment as me by putting essentially every Notre Dame away game in the 8:00pm slot. So, how many prime time games will the Irish play in 2015?
Home Games:
Per und.com, Texas, USC, & Boston College (Fenway Park) are slated for primetime games with Umass, Georgia Tech, Navy, and Wake Forrest set for the normal 3:330 kickoffs.
Away Games:
Clemson: Walt Disney would roll over in his grave if he knew ESPN didn’t schedule this bad boy in primetime. ND-Clemson in Death Valley is too much of a sexy matchup to pass up, so chalk this one up for a primetime start.
Temple: Seeing that I’m a Temple graduate myself, this will be the biggest game played at the Linc since Temple started playing their home games there. Now take into consideration that Temple athletics has been in the red for years, the administration will be licking their licks to get the Irish in primetime. So, visit Eastern Penn on Friday night, because it will be an Irish invasion on Halloween night.
Pitt: The Irish have only one once in their last three trips to the Steel City. Their lone win came in 2011, which was a noon kick off at Heinz Field. The other two resulted with the Irish being upset in primetime. You do the math on this one.
Stanford: This game vs. the Cardinal will most likely be played at 5:00pm West Coast time, which will result in a primetime game. But, do they pull an Arizona State and have a noon kickoff in Palo Alto? Not likely, but maybe they throw us a curve ball like Washington did in 2008 and have a 7:00pm local time kick? If that’s the case, pray for my liver now. Either way, the Irish end the season in primetime.
Bonus: The UVA game gets changed to primetime.
So there you have it. Notre Dame will play seven, perhaps eight, of their games in the primetime slot.