Handpicking a Schedule for Notre Dame Football

Notre Dame’s schedule is pretty good and pretty tough, but would making it a little tougher and longer dispel any doubt as to Notre Dame’s deservedness for Playoff contention in its good years?

Every year, it’s the same thing. We hear in the preseason how daunting ND’s schedule looks, and how many teams on it appear poised to pummel the Fighting Irish. Critics will make claims that highly-ranked Notre Dame will be out of the rankings by the end of the season, as they won’t survive that schedule. Many times, they are right about that part.

Sep 19, 2015; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish defensive lineman Jerry Tillery (99) against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: RVR Photos-USA TODAY Sports /

But like clockwork, the college football season will unfold and various highly-thought-of Notre Dame opponents will suffer bad losses, drop in the polls, and bring the Irish’s strength of schedule well below its hyped expectations (and the Irish will oftentimes lose to one or two or six of them anyway, making any argument moot).

There’s no foolproof way to combat this, as schools have to plan schedules years in advance and programs’ strength can falter down the road with no warning signs. However, overall, I’d like to make some slight changes to how Notre Dame puts together its schedule. So, I’m going to pick a schedule myself. I will follow some basic ground rules, however, so this exercise isn’t completely frivolous:

I will abide by the current agreement to play 5 ACC teams every year. I don’t particularly love it, but it’s where we are and I can’t change that.
My goal is to build an exciting, nationwide, and overall tough schedule for Notre Dame. I know many will point to teams in conferences who pad their schedules with weak non-conference match-ups, but that simply isn’t what Notre Dame is about, and with the College Football Playoff putting a lot of weight on conference championships, the Irish need every strong argument they can get, especially if they suffer even one loss.
I’m only adding one of the academies (Navy, Army, Air Force) per year. Multiple games against triple option teams full of smaller blockers who need to dive at our defensive players’ legs are not worth it, especially when there is literally nothing to gain from beating those teams (the exception almost happened in 2015 with Navy, but they couldn’t pull out the conference title).
There’s no specific year for this schedule I’m about to make, but we can have lots of fun and pretend it’s for this upcoming season and every season onward.
Just have fun with it.
I’m adding a 13th game, because it will combat the conference championships and allow for ND to make a final statement for the College Football Playoff, just like essentially every other team.
Play like a champion today.

Okay, so here we go:

Game 1: Tier 1, non-ACC opponent. I’m talking Texas, Ohio State, Georgia, Oklahoma, Oregon, or any of the SEC powers that aren’t Georgia if they are actually willing to agree to a home-and-home series. We need to get these games in before all of these teams’ conference play starts, and there is nothing better than beginning the season with a statement win over a highly-regarded, prestigious opponent. ND got unlucky that it got a down Texas program in 2015 and 2016, but overall that’s the right move. Keep it up.

Game 2: Tier 3 ACC opponent. That tier, in my eyes, consists of Virginia, Syracuse, North Carolina State, Duke, Boston College, and Wake Forest. I want us playing two of these teams every season as part of the mandatory five ACC games, one of them home, and one away. It gives us a power conference opponent who we should (see Game 2 of 2015 for why I didn’t say “definitely will”) handle easily.

Game 3: Annual rival that isn’t USC or Stanford. When I think of annual rivals, I think of teams we have been playing for decades, like the aforementioned two Pac-12 teams, Michigan State, Purdue, etc. Some years we will get a very good MSU team here, others will give us a bit of a coasting game against a hapless Purdue squad. Either way, it gets us another power conference opponent early on.

Oct 3, 2015; Clemson, SC, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback DeShone Kizer (14) scores a touchdown during the second half against the Clemson Tigers at Clemson Memorial Stadium. Tigers won 24-22. Mandatory Credit: Joshua S. Kelly-USA TODAY Sports /

Game 4: Tier 1 ACC team. I want to play one of these every year. Tier 1 in the ACC is Clemson, Florida State, and possibly Miami. End of list. I want one of them every year at this time, for an early season prime time match-up just like the Clemson game last season and the Florida State game in 2014. Ideally this alternates each year between being a home and away match-up.

Game 5: Tier 3 non-ACC opponent. I want to play one team like this every year, and think in between a prime time ACC opponent and the USC/Stanford game would be a good spot. Teams I envision for a spot like this, that we have played or scheduled or who I think could possibly fit the bill: Nevada, Rice, Temple, Miami (OH), Ball State, New Mexico, etc. This should not be a difficult game and should not gain us any points, but it will at least be an FBS opponent and provide a buffer in between big games.

Game 6: USC or Stanford, whichever one is the home game. This gives us a premier opponent from the west coast at home in October, during prime football weather in South Bend. Visions of USC 2015 and Stanford 2012 are dancing in my head thinking about this one (so, business as usual).

Game 7: Game against the service academy opponent. If you are a traditionalist who thinks ND will never repay the debt they owe Navy for keeping the school going back during the war, then this needs to be Navy every year. Otherwise, if you’re like me and think that, at this point, playing any service academy will garner the same opportunities to show respect to our country’s service men and women and partake in a football game with them, then rotate Army and Air Force into this slot as well.

Oct 11, 2014; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Tarean Folston (25) runs into the end zone for a touchdown as North Carolina Tar Heels safety Sam Smiley (3) defends in the fourth quarter at Notre Dame Stadium. Notre Dame won 50-43. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports /

Game 8: Tier 2 ACC team. That tier includes Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, and Louisville. In some years, this could be a chance for another very strong win on the resume. In other years, it could be an opponent like Pitt in 2015 and provide ND with a week to dominate and move forward.

Game 9: Tier 2 non-ACC opponent. This is where some might say I’m setting up ND to fail, but if the Irish could get another team such as UCLA, Nebraska, Utah, Arizona State, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Washington, BYU, Iowa, Maryland, Kansas State, Northwestern, Boise State, or any 2nd tier team from the SEC (Tennessee, Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina), it would give the Irish another good-to-very-good opponent to beef up strength of schedule without making it too difficult. Could this kind of game late in the season end up costing the Irish a Playoff spot? Possibly. But winning this kind of game, this late in the season, could also be the difference if a Playoff spot is in doubt and ND needed a final leg up on other schools.

Game 10: Tier 2 ACC team. Gets another decent team on the schedule and fulfills the ACC scheduling requirement.

Game 11: Tier 3 ACC team. Many years, or even all years if Game 13 is a neutral-site game, this will be Senior Day. It will allow for a win on that special occasion, and give the team a bit of a cakewalk before heading out to two incredibly crucial games on the schedule for securing a Playoff spot.

Game 12: USC or Stanford, whichever one is the away game. We want to go out to the west coast, get in front of a bunch of California recruits, and hopefully get a very strong win on the road. This is business as usual over Thanksgiving weekend.

Jan 2, 2016; San Antonio, TX, USA; The TCU Horned Frogs flag bearers celebrate one of TCU /

Game 13: This is the game-breaker. If 12 games have passed and Notre Dame is not firmly in a Playoff spot (it almost never is), then this will serve as a fantastic answer to all of the conference championships and “13th games” (I put that in quotes because a team that plays 1 or more FCS opponents is honestly not playing 13 real games) of many other top teams. The opponents for this need to be Tier 1 or Tier 2 teams from the Big 12, who despite a recent rule change has not yet decided if it will hold a conference title game (they have decided against it in the past). So, opponents like TCU, Baylor, Oklahoma State, etc. would be perfect for a big-time game in the final week to keep both teams relevant. Both sides would have a lot to gain here.