If the NCAA decides in April to make a 12th regular-season game a permanent part of the college football schedule, as expected, Notre Dame hopes to play seven games at home, four in its opponents’ stadiums and one at a neutral site starting in 2009.
The Irish usually play six home games and five or six road games per season.
“We’re trying to get to seven home games as quick as we can,” said senior associate athletic director John Heisler, who oversees scheduling. “It could happen in 2006 if this thing is approved. In 2006 and 2007, we would try to add a seventh home game here in South Bend; 2008 is already a 12-game season, and that one is already set (six home, six away). We’ve got six home [games] and six road, and I don’t think anything is going to change that. [In] 2009 … that conceivably would be the first time we could look at the neutral-site option.”
Though the Irish would consider playing neutral-site games in various cities, including Chicago, their initial focus, Heisler said, would be regions in which the program rarely plays road games.
The university has kept NBC, whose contract to televise Notre Dame home games runs through the 2010 season, abreast of its plans. Officials expect that terms could be worked out with the network to televise the neutral-site game.
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Edited by the sports staff of RedEye.
