What a Nine-Game Season Might Look Like for Notre Dame Football

As the impacts of COVID-19 continue to inch closer to the 2020 college football season, some Athletic Directors have called for a nine-game season. What would that look like for Notre Dame football?

At this point, football might be the only sport whose season hasn’t been completely put on the COVID-19 chopping block – yet. As the threat of the virus grows, so does the likelihood that we will not see a regular college football season this coming fall for the Notre Dame football team.

In an interview with Scott Van Pelt in March, head coach Brian Kelly stated that July 1st would be a critical date in terms of being able to fully prepare the athletes – mentally and physically – for a full 12-game season. If measures are still in place at that time that would limit or prohibit teams from coming together to practice and condition, it would seem very likely that at the minimum, the start of the college football season would be delayed.

With this in mind, many Athletic Directors have begun brainstorming ways for the season to continue under unique circumstances, including the possibility of a nine-game season or postponing the season until the Spring of 2021.

Recently, Stadium published the results of an anonymous survey of all 130 FBS ADs (in which 112 participated), in which they asked how confident they were the upcoming season would be played and what alternatives they would consider.

Many of the proposed suggestions would shift the time of the year the season would take place, either starting in October of 2020 or in January of 2021. However, the idea of a nine-game season was also brought up where non-conference games were eliminated from the schedule and teams would only play their conference games starting in October.

This obviously comes with a myriad of questions and hurdles. Conference games in September would have to be rescheduled, the Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12 all play nine league games while the ACC, SEC, and all Group of Five leagues only play eight, and what do the Independents do?

That’s a lot to try and figure out, but again that is just one of the proposed changes to the upcoming season and there are a million factors and variables that will go into determining the final decision.

But in this scenario let’s say it does happen. All Power Five and Group of Five football programs will play a nine-game season with no out-of-conference games and the season doesn’t start until October. What would this look like for Notre Dame football?

For starters, it would be extremely beneficial for the Irish that the ACC only plays eight league games, as Notre Dame would be the ninth game for (at most) nine of the 14 ACC teams.

The Notre Dame football team already has six ACC teams slated for the upcoming season – Wake Forest, Pittsburgh, Duke, Clemson, Georgia Tech, and Louisville. In this case, all six of those games would stay.

Since the Big-10 and the Pac-12 have nine conference games already, the matchups vs Wisconsin, Stanford, and USC would all be canceled.

That would just leave Navy, Arkansas, and Western Michigan left for the Irish to play. Navy and Western Michigan are both Group of Five schools that would have a slot open for their ninth game and Arkansas would as well since the SEC only plays eight league games.

That would look something like this:

October 3 – @ Wake Forest (WF is scheduled to play Duke this week, so either that gets moved or both teams play on 12/5)

October 10 – Navy (Navy has a BYE in their original schedule during this week)

October 17 – @ Pittsburgh

October 24 – Arkansas (Originally a BYE week for both Notre Dame and Arkansas)

October 31 – Duke

November 7 – Clemson

November 14 – @ Georgia Tech

November 21 – Louisville

November 28  – Western Michigan (Scheduled to play Buffalo on 11/27, would have to reschedule to their BYE week on 11/7 or play ND 12/5 and Notre Dame would have a BYE this week)

While that would seemingly conclude Notre Dame’s schedule – with their six ACC games and Navy, Arkansas, and Western Michigan – I doubt it would be that easy.

First off, Notre Dame’s tie to the ACC would most likely mean they would have to be the ninth game for three other conference teams. The holes in Notre Dame’s schedule come on October 3, October 10, October 24, and November 28.

If the Notre Dame football team had to play three other ACC teams to fill their schedule, here are some possibilities:

• Florida State plays Florida on November 28 as one of their OOC games, which would get canceled. That could be a potential final week game.
• Syracuse has a BYE on October 10th which could fill that slot.
• Virginia has a BYE on October 10 as well and plays Old Dominion on October 24 which is an OOC game.

Every ACC team plays a conference game on October 3 which makes it hard for the Irish to wiggle their way in during that weekend. However, both Wake Forest and Duke, who are scheduled to play October 3, have a BYE on October 24. If that game was flexed three weeks down the road, it would open up the opportunity for the Notre Dame football team to play the Wake Forest Demon Deacons for the first game of the season.

This updated all-ACC schedule would look like this:

October 3 – @ Wake Forest

October 10 – Syracuse

October 17 – @ Pittsburgh

October 24 – Virginia

October 31 – Duke

November 7 – Clemson

November 14 – @ Georgia Tech

November 21 – Louisville

November 28  – @ Florida State

If the Notre Dame football team had any say in who they could play and didn’t want to fill their three extra games with just ACC teams, I’d imagine Western Michigan would be the first team to be cut. Although many are against it, the Notre Dame-Navy connection is real and not going anywhere if both schools can help it.

Keeping Arkansas would give the Irish a nice SEC game that would look good on paper, even if it’s a bottom-tier SEC program. This would also help their resume since the highly-anticipated game vs Wisconsin would no longer be an option in this scenario. A win over Arkansas looks better than a win over Western Michigan.

This hybrid schedule would look like this:

October 3 – @ Wake Forest

October 10 – Navy (Navy has a BYE in their original schedule during this week)

October 17 – @ Pittsburgh

October 24 – Arkansas (Originally a BYE week for both Notre Dame and Arkansas)

October 31 – Duke

November 7 – Clemson

November 14 – @ Georgia Tech

November 21 – Louisville

November 28  – @ Florida State

This seems like the best of both worlds and makes sense as far as scheduling goes. Again, this completely unlikely scenario is just that – unlikely. As I said earlier, a million and one factors will go into the decision as to how the college football season will play out and be scheduled.

If in fact a nine-game, conference opponent-only season was the end result, it would cause a drastic ripple effect in the world of amateur sports. A shortened season would mean less revenue and many smaller programs would take years to bounce back if they do at all.

But at the end of the day, the bigger picture is what matters and that is the long-term health and well-being of our country and those across the world. If we have football at all, great. If we don’t have it, then clearly we aren’t ready to as the safety of the student-athletes, coaches, fans, and society come first.

That is the nature of the current situation and we will have to cross this bridge the closer it gets to the fall. Until then, keep washing your hands and watching throwback videos of your team’s all-time classic moments and games. Football will be back when it’s time for football to be back.