Notre Dame Football: Concerns over the 2020 schedule

There are major concerns over the 2020 schedule that could deeply, and negatively affect Notre Dame’s season going forward.

In the wake of COVID-19, there have become major concerns over what the 2020 College Football season would look like. Some have suggested only playing conference schedules, while others have suggested possibly only playing one out of conference game. At any rate, these are dangerous suggestions to Notre Dame on the sole basis of the program’s independence.

Athletic Director, Jack Swarbrick has been very open with the media, giving his opinions about the state of the 2020 college football season. The other day he held another call with members of the media:

The biggest takeaway from this call was that Swarbrick feels Notre Dame will be able to put together a strong, respectable schedule. He also said that he’d push for the conference schedule “plus one.”

This plus one would allow the Irish to keep games like Wisconsin at Lambeau Field, and Clemson at Notre Dame Stadium on the schedule.

With the plus one, Swarbrick is correct. He can keep Notre Dame playing a competitive schedule. This is for the simple reason that it’s better to have Notre Dame in your out of conference schedule than to not have them there.

Playing Notre Dame gives your program a marquee match-up. It puts tons of eyes from around the country on your program, it excites the fans and is a good decision financially. Remember teams split gate and TV revenue, so it’s just better sense in financially uncertain times to make money playing Notre Dame than it does to pay for a bye game.

However, if there are no out of conference games, Notre Dame is left little to no options. They’ll likely need to play a full season against the other Independent programs in FBS football. Just a reminder, besides the Irish, the Independents at the FBS level are UMass, UConn, Liberty, New Mexico State, BYU, and Army.

That’s six mediocre games. Yes, there’s some historic relevance to playing Army and BYU, but it would be boring to watch the Irish beat up on some of the FBS’ worst programs. Fans wouldn’t show up (assuming they’re allowed to), TV ratings will be down, and even though the Irish would go unbeaten there’s no chance that they’d be let into the College Football Playoff with that mediocre schedule.

So, Notre Dame needs at least one out of conference game to even begin to put hope into having a worthwhile 2020 season.

Even in a situation where teams are allowed one out of conference game there’d be at least one notable fallout. The Irish wouldn’t be able to play Navy.

The annual Notre Dame-Navy game, set to be played in Dublin, Ireland would be canceled entirely. With only one out of conference game available, Navy would choose to play Army every time. That game means too much to skip. There’s not even the beginning of a debate to be had.

It would become the first time Notre Dame and Navy hadn’t played since they first met in 1927. It’s a sad thought for traditionalists, and while there is optimism the game will occur, it’s impossible to not be concerned about the game’s viability.