Why is this being announced?

Be Irish *

To get you to buy a jersey.

Got my email for it yesterday.

Also gets the shirts in the bookstore for graduation weekend *

Mo money, mo money, mo money

That is almost always the answer to questions like these regarding ND.

Because somebody has the foresight to protect the brand! *

Protecting the brand is our stated top priority...

Actually trying to compete at highest levels is our 3d priority. This move is consistent w/ that stated set of priorities.

As someone who participated in the 1977 switch, seeing it become a trite marketing ploy makes our priorities tangible to me.

Relax, and celebrate The Brand.

Tune in, tell your friends and family, and buy stuff.

Pray, Pay, Obey, lads.

Be Irish! *

We need some good press for St. Paddy's Day.

Normally our men's basketball team would be up for the task but, well, you know...

3/17/07 MBB made the press, but not good press for ND *

I always thought it was Winthorp *

It was the Dukes *

The brand facilitates merchandise sales of its partners...

I read somewhere the bookstore is also going to offer a Digger Phelps doll that says “We are . . . the Green Machine!" when you squeeze its hand.

No, not really. I made up the Digger doll. There is no such thing.
It just sounds like something the brand would do.

I think it’s also about the fans.

There’s gonna be a lot of red. It stands out more and makes it look worse than it is when ND’s fanbase is equally distributed wearing green/blue/gold as opposed to every ND fan wearing green. I think ND is considering that in light of UGA and Nebraska games.

It's much harder to keep something secret with social media. *

I like it being announced ahead of time

For one thing, in today's world something like a green-jersey game would be close to impossible to keep secret. Word would leak out on Twitter or wherever else. I'm actually quite surprised in retrospect that even Weis and (shudder) Ty were able to keep their surprises on lockdown.

I also think we've long passed the point of diminishing returns for a surprise green jersey game.

What's the last statement based on?

Things were going to be wild for USC 2005, and already were in the pre-game. But when that team took the field wearing green jerseys, the place absolutely erupted. I think it played a role in how the team performed in the first half especially.

I'm not sure that magic is dead. And, even if it died that day, 2005 wasn't that long ago anyway.

2005 was a LONG time ago...no Twitter, Facebook or anything

like that. Yahoo GeoCities didn't even shut down until 2009. The only thing active in 2005 was MySpace and that was only a couple years old.

There's zero chance you could keep something like that quiet today.

And since 2005 we've worn green like every other year.

Often long-planned out in advance in an attempt to increase merchandise sales in Shamrock Series games. I agree that the magic need not be dead. But we need to stop wearing green for like 20 years to bring it back. Which we should anyway.