C'mon, USC, You Game?: Irish ask BYU to Play Sept. 4

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=1811044

Where on Earth was this a couple of months ago, when LSU was looking for a Sept. 4 playmate?

Gee, how perfect would that be: Notre Dame gets its game with BYU on Sept. 4 and USC, who is currently scheduled to travel to BYU on Sept. 4, need only change its flight reservations from Provo to Baton Rouge...

USC-LSU, Baton Rouge, La., Sept. 4, 2004: Think ESPN Gameday would show up for THAT game???
:lsug: :champs: :lsug: :champs: :lsug: :champs: :lsug: :champs: :lsug:

 

Allright, the fact that first LSU and now, apparently, USC was/is looking for a Sept. 4 opponent (and given the fact that USC was looking for a Aug 28 game and that wussy Matt Lienhart was quoted as saying they wanted LSU in 2004 but, "they said no" even though SEC rules prohibit participation in a kickoff classic game) is driving me NUTS in a "so close I can taste it"-kind of way.

If ONLY we could figure out a way to take care of Oregon St. on the 4th (I doubt they would want to wait until the 11th to start their season)...

Okay, I know it's not going to happen, but DAMN if it isn't frustrating!

Then again, if ND and BYU do make the Sept 4 switch, the interest in dropping an Oregon St. game that you just picked up as a one and done game a couple of months ago in order to have USC come to Death Valley may be too great to resist, causing LSU to drop out of the OSU game (hey, I can dream, can't I?) :wink:

 

Oh well, my momentary excitement has passed: the error-filled USC athletics website (some mention about 2003 National Champions or something) has a news story about how the USC-BYU game has been moved to Sept. 18.

Well, one definite nice thing about all this is the LSU-Oregon St. game is *by far* the best game of the day on Sept. 4 and should be even more of a lock for the College Gameday crew now that USC-BYU is no longer on that date.

Related announcement on BYU site:

http://www.byucougars.com/football/filings/0000005347_rel.html

I assume the BYU-ND game gets shown on ESPN2, but if the Troy-Boy lovers up in Bristol choose to air a contest between the defending national champ and another preseason top 25 team on "the deuce" to make room for the colossal Irish-Cougar tilt, it wouldn't surprise me in the least.

...Then again, both the USC-Auburn games (2002 and 2003) were shown on ABC and CBS, respectively, so a broadcast network slot is a possibility as well, I suppose, though that would likely mean an afternoon start time.

 

Notre Dame really pushed for this change and USC having a good relationship agreed to work with and ND and BYU on this. BYU needs the ND series more than ND and agreed to this also.

But, the roots of this go back the resumption of the Michigan-ND series in the late 70s. They stopped playing each other after 1943 and only agreed to start the Michigan-ND series again in 1978. Now the gentlemen's agreement between ND and UM was that their game would be the first game of the season for both teams so neither team would have an advantage. Because of ND's rivalries with Purdue and Michigan State as well, they regularly have to start the season with UM, MSU and Purdue.

But sometime in the late 90s the gentlement's agreement between UM and ND broke down. I think ND did it first and then UM started doing it. ND or UM now does not want to face either team with any advantage. UM, I think starts the season with Miami, OH. But, in sum, the gentlement's agreement broke down and ND did not want UM to have an advantage of playing one game before them.

 

Good post Ralph. And funny reading for the first couple of posts on this thread, guess whoever started it wanted to cause a little of what he did cause. The ND/BYU game will probably be on NBC, couldn't imagine them paying ND all that money and not televising this game.

 

cajdav nbc only air nd home games. i dunno if it is a home game or not but if its an away game nbc will not air it.

 

The game is in provo, so ABC or ESPN will televise it.

 

USC is all talk....NO ACTION!!!!

Step up to the plate, big boys!!!

 

An ESPN official is quoted in the story from the BYU site as saying that they (ESPN or ESPN2) will carry the ND-BYU game the evening of Sept. 4.

I say...ABC carries LSU-Oregon St., with College Gameday in Baton Rouge (and Lee Corso wearing Mike the Tiger's head once again come prediction time).