BYU and Notre Dame still have four games left to schedule, but will that ever happen? Notre Dame has entered into a deal with the ACC where they will play 5 games against ACC competition every season. This is likely to begin 2015 or 2016. Is the BYU deal toast?
Let's look at what Notre Dame has to fill their 12-game schedule and see if there is any room for the Cougars...
5-Games vs. ACC
Stanford
USC
Army/Navy/Air Force
Michigan/Michigan State/Indiana/Purdue
3 games left on the schedule
Sounds like any other team in a conference.
Is there any extra motivation that Notre Dame has to play the Cougars? They do not have a long tradition against BYU. There are only about 25,000 Roman Catholics in Utah and the Salt Lake City market does not product a large number of marqee athletes, although Notre Dame has had a couple of solid players, like Manti Teo, from the state.
There is probably a little extra motivation to playing BYU in football. TV ratings. A BYU/Notre Dame match up is a TV ratings winner, even when both schools are not doing so well. There are not a lot of Latter-Day Saints in Indiana, and there are not a lot of Roman Catholics in Utah. But both faiths have large numbers of fans in other markets. Roman Catholics are common on the east coast. Mormons are all over the west. When BYU and Notre Dame hook up, people will watch. Both NBC and ESPN are winners.
Outside of this, there is not a lot of reasons for BYU and ND to hook up. BYU fans have good reason to be concerned.
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