I like big butts I can not lie: UConn-ND at Fenway still alive?

http://touch.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-72427301/

Notre Dame's new alliance calls for five annual football games against Atlantic Coast Conference teams as early as 2014. With 11 games unofficially scheduled for that season —only two against ACC foes (Pittsburgh and Syracuse) —the math says Notre Dame must cancel or postpone two.

Assuming the Irish maintain rivalries with USC, Stanford and Navy, that leaves four spots for six opponents: Northwestern, Purdue, Michigan, Connecticut, Temple and Rice."

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Chicago Tribune writer that breaks most ND news. Things that make you go hmmmm....

And Jacobs chimes in:

http://www.courant.com/sports/college/hc-jacobs-uconn-football-column-0921-20120921,0,7109883.column

Although athletics director Jack Swarbrick called media reports that Notre Dame will play UConn in Fenway Park in 2014 "inaccurate," there were no reports saying that it would definitely happen. Fenway wants to host college football. UConn would jump at the opportunity. Talks date to Jeff Hathaway. No, there haven't been hard-core negotiations, money, tickets, etc. Yes, we have to see how Notre Dame's move to the ACC affects its scheduling. Still, it's a much better bet than Bobby Valentine returning as Red Sox manager.

"I am sorry to see them go," UConn President Susan Herbst responded in an email last week after Notre Dame announced its Big East departure. "I hope we can figure out how to play them still, in special games, even when they have left the conference."

In retrospect, that probably was foreshadowing.

Why was Hathaway referenced?

Because it was in the article???

To be more precise; why was Hathaway referenced in the article?

Your losing me... Because talks regarding future scheduling with ND go back to the Hathaway era?

This is evidently what JJ is attempting to get at but he is framing it as if there have been continuous discussions. The deal JH was involved with was dead and buried before we visited them in 2009. This is not only an entirely different discussion, the cause is a party (Red Sox ownership) that was never in play during the JH/ND discussions. There was no reason to include JH on this article.

Um okay... do we want to start a "swear jar" for everytime someone mentions the "H" name in the future?

I don't see the problem with the Hathaway reference. Even as incompetent as he was, talks between UConn and ND hopefully have been in some level of discussion for the last few years. Since ND has always been finagling for neutral site games, I'm sure all types of locations have been broached.

I'm more intrigued about the Chicago Tribune writer's reference of UConn than Jacobs' thoughts after talking with UConn people. Greenstein was the first guy out with Swarbrick's comments re playing UConn in 2004 as being "inaccurate." Yet now we show up as one of the 6 games from which ND needs to cull down to 4 to fulfill their ACC contract. That comes from the ND side, not UConn or the Red Sox.

Sounds like a lot of reporting outdated facts as new news around this issue. I put the chances we play ND in FB within the next 5 years at less than 5%.

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The Teddy Greenstein article in the Tribune is from last night, as is the Jacobs article. Both post-date Swarbricks comments. Greenstein should surely know about Swarbrick's comments. He was the first to report on them. I'd take your 5% and raise to 50/50, if not higher.

are you saying you think there's a 50/50 chance of us playing ND in the next five year? I hope you're right, but i think 5% is much closer, if not too high. If this deal were going to happen we'd have heard about it when it was officially announced. When you start hearing rumors it's usually b/c it ain't happening

Didn't expect it to blow up the way it did.

My comment was more an indictment of Jacobs (for what I perceived to be lazy journalism) as it appeared the only purpose of that part of the article was to add a few extra lines of type.

It wasn't a question of whether we should or should not bring up JH, merely that JJ doing so added nothing to his article.

My guess is that ND is playing disinterested in order to get a better deal. This proposal was initiated by the Red Sox ownership, not ND so ND automatically believes that whatever is being offered, they are entitled to at least 40% more.

I can tell you, FSG (Fenway Sports Group) does not play hardball with people about events at Fenway. They know they can get just about any event they want there, so if ND isn't interested or tries to bend them over, they'll get someone else. I'm sure they'd like ND, but they don't need ND by any means. One call to Ann Arbor and they'll have found a suitable replacement with a giant alumni base here.

Like, say, BC?

ND future schedule will include
5 ACC games
Stanford
USC
Navy
Byu
Every year (that's 9)

They would also like to play
Michigan
Michigan St.
Purdue
Army
most if not all years (that's 13)

The also want to play neutral site games in specific geographies ,against top ten teams or other marquee opponents such as
Texas
Oklahoma

It is this last category of geographic biased games where Uconn/Fenway fit in. But, there are at least 13 teams they'd rather play than us. It's not impossible, but I take ND at their word for once when they say they are evaluating the affects of the ACC deal on their future schedules.

I don't see it happening. They need easy wins on their schedule as well.



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On the subject of 2014 scheduling, we still have no OOC games, right? Any rumblings who might be on the schedule besides a possible ND game?

At the pace we are going, looks like we'll be able to get another decade of games against Buffalo! /sarcasm

Although a guaranteed win vs a FBS team in our neighborhood isn't a bad thing either.

Yes, BC has had a longstanding partnership with FSG. Point is, if ND decides they want to play hard ball and make FSG bend over and give in to everything they want schedule/money wise to get the game, they'll tell them have a nice day and have no problem getting a different game. They could easily bring in Michigan to play a northeast opponent, UConn, BC, etc., and sell it out without any problem whatsoever. You could put a coin-flipping contest at Fenway and Bostonians would buy 15,000 tickets.

Plus you usually can't get Fenway Franks after October but once or twice a century