Ever since Notre Dame unveiled their schedule for the next three seasons, Jack Swarbrick has been talking about getting an SEC team into the mix. Last month, we saw the first smoke to this fire as rumors surfaced that Georgia could very well be that SEC opponent.
Yesterday, we got the first official world from the horse’s mouth as Georgia AD Greg McGarity went on record with his shared desire to make this happen:
Georgia and Notre Dame are moving closer to a football series “later this decade,” Georgia athletics director Greg McGarity said Tuesday. And while no deal is done, and McGarity cautioned that there could be snags, he made clear that he would be eager for it to happen.
“I think it’s an opponent we’ve played, what, one time? 1980? For our fans to be able to go up to South Bend, and for our fans to see Notre Dame play between the hedges, I think from a national perspective it’d be off the charts, as far as interest, as far as intrigue,” McGarity said. “That would be something out of the ordinary that our fans would be very, very excited about.”
I certainly hope this comes to fruition as I would love to see both ends of this home-and-home personally. For both programs, this is a win/win situation as well.
For the Irish, no matter how tough the schedule is, the narrative that “ND doesn’t play SEC” remains. Right or wrong, this causes the public perception to consider the schedule more watered down that actually is. Further, with college football moving to a playoff, removing any such excuse or erroneous public perception will make sure that ND doesn’t fall victim to a playoff snub.
This potential series would also allow the Irish to visit yet another hotbed for recruiting and one that they will not visit in the next three years. In 2015, Georgia Tech will visit the Irish in South Bend, but the other end of that trip hasn’t been determined yet.
Assuming Swarbrick requires the game between the hedges be played when ND isn’t playing at Georgia Tech, that will allow for two visits to Georgia in separate years which will do nothing but aid in Irish recruiting efforts.
As far as Georgia is concerned, not only will a game against ND likely be a guarantee for national attention (assuming both programs stay on their current trajectories), but also answer a criticism that practically every SEC team gets from us: the SEC never travels north of the Mason-Dixon line — much less to face a strong out-of-conference opponent.
Sure, teams like Alabama have faced northern opponents, but they have done so either at home or on neutral ground. In fact, Alabama just had a series with Michigan State fall through for just this reason as Nick Saban claimed Sparty didn’t want the neutral site game (and honestly, I can’t blame them for standing their ground and requiring a game in East Lansing).
So here’s hoping this all pans out. It’s clear both schools want this to happen and, depending on when the series happens, Notre Dame could very well have an “out-of-conference” (non-ACC and not Southern Cal, Navy, Stanford) that includes Texas and Georgia in the same season.
That’s definitely something to get excited about.
- Epilogue - January 3, 2022
- HLS Podcast Finale - January 2, 2022
- The Final Fiesta: Notre Dame vs Oklahoma State NCAA ’14 Sim - December 31, 2021