Notre Dame Football Could Big Losers In The Upcoming Season

COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc in the sports world. On Wednesday, the Ivy League announced that is was suspending all sports until at least January 1st. On Thursday, the Big 10 announced that it would be playing only conference games this coming season and the Atlantic Coast Conference, along with the Pac-12 conference could be on the verge of doing the same. The Southeastern Conference has not made a decision one way or another yet and the same can be said for the Big 12 conference.

What does all this have to do with Notre Dame Football? I am glad you asked that question. With the Big 10 cutting out their non-conference slate and the ACC along with the Pac 12 expected to follow suit, that could leave the Irish with just two games to be played this year. Why would they even have the season? The two games that they could end up playing are against Navy, which has already been moved from Ireland to Annapolis, Maryland, and Western Michigan from the Mid-American Conference. If the SEC does not cut out their non-conference games, then Notre Dame would pick up a game against Arkansas.

The rest of their games this year are against the ACC the Big 10 and the Pac-12. Notre Dame is ranked in the Top-15 in most of the polls out there and they have some very big games on their schedule, including Wisconsin, Clemson, Stanford, and USC. All four of those games would have gone a long way in determining whether or not the Irish would have been in the playoffs this year.

The big loss for Notre Dame would be if the ACC decided to cancel all their non-conference games as the Irish have six games against that conference. That is huge. Their games against the ACC include facing Wake Forest, Pittsburgh, Duke, Clemson, Georgia Tech, and Louisville. That is a huge portion of Notre Dame’s schedule and it would be a shame to not see some of those games happen.

This is a very unusual year and we sill see some unusual things. Seeing the Notre Dame Fighting Irish play just two games this year would certainly be one of them. Notre Dame finished at 11-2 last year and ranked 12th in the AP Poll. They are ranked 11th in this year’s preseason poll. I am a huge Notre Dame fan and I very much hope to see more than two games from them this year.