I was also viewing it from a home slate standpoint, which I didn’t state

Michigan
Ball State
Vandy
Stanford
Pitt
FSU

There are two must go to games on there and one likely good game. That’s it.

Also, I used to watch every game no matter what. You couldn’t pay me to watch ND/Ball State. I won’t watch a second live or in highlights. I cannot think of an ND game in my lifetime I didn’t give one iota of a fuck about, but here we are with Ball State (and maybe that’s part to do with the “it’s Ball State” ads that were prevalent in our time).

2 definite Tier 1 games in Michigan and FSU. Stanford is another great one. Pitt is a decent home game, but not great. One complete cream puff in Ball(s) State. An Vandy is nothing special. But everyone has at least 1 or 2 creampuffs on their home slate...usually more. OSU has Rutgers, Tulane, and Indiana (Michigan and Nebraska are the big home games). Michigan has SMU, W Michigan, and Indiana (Penn St, Nebraska, and Wisconsin are their decent home ones). Bama has Arkansas St, UL Lafayette, and the Citadel at home (A&M, Auburn, and LSU are the big home ones). Auburn has Alabama State, Southern Miss, and Liberty (LSU and A&M as good home ones). FSU has Samford and N Illinois. Florida has Charleston Southern and Idaho. Wisconsin has W Kentucky and New Mexico. Etc, etc.

I won't get excited for Ball State either, but games like that are a necessity. You need some layup home games to fill out the schedule (especially with teams moving to 9 conference games, which makes it harder to schedule). I think we have enough meat on the rest of the home slate to not be all that upset.

On what you are comparing it to.

everyone else, yeah, it's fine.

What I grew up with and had grown accustomed to, it sucks.


This is my other beef with the ACC deal. I can't muster much "give a shit about Pitt and Cuse (who we've played many times, well before the ACC deal). Like I said, Ball State may be the lowest "give a shit" game since I started following ND games 34 some odd years ago. Pitt is pretty close. I just can't muster much give a shit about watching us play Pitt again. Michigan is great. FSU is great. Stanford and USC are Stanford and USC (who rotate). That's 3 home games worth a damn this year in Michigan, FSU and Stanford. The rest, I really don't give a shit about. I used to care about all of the home games. That's just not the case anymore.

But I do agree, we're just like everyone else (and not elite) when it comes to scheduling.

...but I think it's been like this for a while now.

In 1988, we played Michigan and Penn State as good games (even though PSU wound up being pretty disappointing that year). But we also had Purdue (which to me has always been a boring game and fake rivalry), Stanford (who was crappy back then), and then Ball State-ish Rice and Air Force games. I think 2018 is more exciting than that.

1998 had Michigan, Purdue, and Stanford again (Purdue was better, but Stanford still stunk), and then a top game in LSU (who also wound up being crappy that year), and awful Baylor (remember, Baylor was horrible back then) and Army games. 2018 is probably more exciting than that as well.

Anyway, I think there's been home games people don't care about for 30+ years now.