I’d offer that while it’s certainly a high profile game, it’s one we didn’t need for a “special year” with 4 other preseason top 25 squads already on the schedule + Stanford and USU. Think of the classic BYU season of your choice and compare our 2022 schedule without the Irish. It’s already more difficult.

Is there a payoff to potentially beating what’s projected to be a top 10 (or better) Notre Dame in a nationally-televised game? Of course. We’ll be highly visible and collect a nice check. A win could be epic. It could also easily be the difference between finishing 9-3 and ranked or 8-4.

Ty Detmer’ senior year, we got aggressive and added the Kickoff Classic vs. #1 Florida State in Anaheim. We got trounced and then lost our already-scheduled games vs UCLA and Penn State to go 0-3. Was it a good gamble? In ‘96 and ‘09 we added high-profile games vs. higher-ranked foes and got classic wins that sparked great seasons. The ‘84 title was probably won, or at least made possible, by beating #3 Pitt on the inaugural broadcast of a new, sports-only channel called ESPN.

A couple glaring differences I see is that marquee additions have typically happened to start the year. More importantly, the 2022 season didn’t need this type of matchup to be special due to what was already on the schedule.

From a wins and losses standpoint, I consider the ND game an unnecessary gamble wherein we’re likely to lose that jeopardizes the prospects of a great season. If we go down before a sea of Irish fans to go 0-3 in the recent series, that idea will be reenforced. I’d much rather we win, and if we do, I’ll be elated to have been wrong. I suspect that will be the case for a lot of people.