for when OSU comes to South Bend in late September.

Of course after this season, nothing can be taken for granted.

Navy is Navy & I know little about Central Michigan.

Regardless, the Tennessee State game SHOULD be decided well before halftime & SHOULD be a great opportunity to get backups some valuable game time experience.

Is that there are still a number of yet to be determined dates on the schedule. As things currently stand, we have four opponents with no set date:

@ Louisville
@ Duke
@ N.C. State
PITT

Set dates are as follows:

8/26 Navy @ Dublin
9/2 TENNESSEE STATE
9/16 CENTRAL MICHIGAN
9/23 OHIO STATE
10/14 SOUTHERN CAL
10/28 WAKE FOREST
11/4 @ Clemson
11/25 @ Stanford

Currently open dates are: 9/9, 9/30, 10/7, 10/21, 11/11 and 11/18. ND will have two byes next year because they play on Week Zero.

I don't make the calls on this, but if it were up to me, we'd assign the remaining open dates as follows:

9/9 @ Louisville: I worry that ND has too easy a slate prior to the Ohio State game. This game gives us a decent early season test, at least. It also provides a close to campus road game for the students before the academic grind really gets going.

10/7 @ Duke
10/21 @ NC State

Flip flop these games if you prefer, but on balance I prefer them in this order.

11/18 PITT: ND's only chance for a November home date.

That leaves byes on 9/30 and 11/11, not optimal but acceptable. Alternatively, if you prefer schedule either NC State or Duke for 11/11, make sure the other is 10/7 and that leaves your bye weeks at 9/30 and 10/21.

They have Murray State scheduled that day, so it's unlikely that they'd move it to put ND in that spot. NC State does not have a game on their schedule for that date, so maybe those 2 teams could flip-flop.

I agree with you that Pitt will be in November. It could be on 11/11 instead of 11/18, unless I'm missing something.