Several of you this week have asked me about Notre Dame's return trip to Provo, after the 2 games here. I am taking a class from Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick this semester and last week asked him a bit about his relationship with Tom Holmoe and Notre Dame's scheduling.
He spoke extremely highly about Tom Holmoe and how he considers him a true friend in an industry where true friends are at a premium. He said Notre Dame's move to the ACC created some scheduling issues where Notre Dame is contracted for 16 games in 2 upcoming seasons and he found out who his true friends are. He said Tom Holmoe was one of them. Some schools demanded excessive payouts. He didn't mention who, but it's obvious who (looking at you Arizona State), but one team only agreed to cancel their return trip to Notre Dame but was still going to require the Irish to travel there in an upcoming season.
BYU and Tom Holmoe agreed to give Notre Dame some leeway and flexibility to get to Provo when it made sense for Notre Dame. So Jack said that the return game to Provo will be in 2017. The nice part about being in a class with him is that sometimes he forgets what has been officially announced and what hasn't: the two schools have not officially announced this. So, there you go, Mo Knows actually has some inside scoop instead of random (and hopefully interesting) statistical tidbits!
Another interesting tidbit, Jack said he likes the 3 game, 2-1 deal with BYU. However, BYU talks about it as a 6-game series concluding by 2020. That will be interesting to see how that plays out from 2018-2020, since the two teams would have to play each of those 3 years to get 6 games in by 2020. Notre Dame already has 10 games (2 Big Ten, 5 ACC per the contract, then the trifecta Navy, USC, and Stanford) scheduled for each of those 3 seasons...
Thanks, Mo
ReplyDeleteif i were the irish, i'd try to play the cougars every year.
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