No matter what, Notre Dame gets blasted for its scheduling practices. Most outsiders say it’s too soft, while a lot of fans say it is the opposite. No matter what side of the fence you may be on- SCHEDULING A GAME AGAINST UMASS RANKS AS A “AWW WHAT THE FUCK?” RESPONSE.
Report: #ND to play UMass in football in 2015. ht.ly/achtp
— Irish Sports Daily (@ISDUpdate) April 11, 2012
Now, this is the state of of college football. Major programs MUST swallow up at least one cupcake a year if not two (or three if you just like to wave your middle finger at your own fanbase). Notre Dame is no different in their need to have one of these games a season. At least the Irish waited to play UMass until after a few years into the transition from a FCS program into a FBS program. Here is what the “unofficial” schedule looked like from the front page of NDNation.com:
2015 Football Schedule
S05 TEXAS
S12 @ Michigan
S19 @ Purdue
S26 TEMPLE
O10 NAVY
O17 SOUTHERN CAL
N07 WAKE FOREST
N14 @ Pittsburgh
N21 SYRACUSE
@ Boston College
ARMY
@ Stanford
As you can see, there is 12 teams already there. However, with the move to the ACC, PITT and Syracuse may be looking for a way out of the game. It could also be possible that ND doesn’t want to play Army. Or… maybe Temple’s move to the Big East forced them to back out. I don’t have the answers, but i know the reasons… REALIGNMENT. UMass and Charley Molnar were there to help.
Even if Notre Dame remains an Independent, there may be an increased level of difficulty for ND to maintain a respectable or even managable schedule. Notice something missing from that schedule? Yep, Michigan State. I don’t see how a 9 game ACC schedule with USC, Navy, and alternating Purdue, MSU, and Michigan would be much worse. That’s just my opinion, and I’m sticking to that argument. Otherwise, we see more and more of this until it consumes the entire schedule:
Completely reasonable headline: “ND Schedules No-Win Game Against UMass”
— Matt Quirion (@mquirion) April 11, 2012
