No actual contract for Notre Dame Series
Interesting article on aa.com. Apparently, we have no actual signed agreement with ND to play until 2031. Hopefully, when they actually work this out there are some additional breaks so we can schedule a different big name opponent. That, or ND joins the Big Ten.
I say make it a four years on, two years off, or three on, one off arrangement. That way, we can then schedule some other heavyweights in the years ND isn't on the schedule. Georgia? LSU? Tennessee? Va Tech? Texas? Oklahoma? Missouri? Cal?
How about West By God Virginia?
When you represent the Pope why would you need a contract?
you devil you
ND should join the Big Ten. Keep us at 12 teams. you play 11 conference games, complete round robin and 1 or 2 (as soon as the NCAA extends the season to 13) non-conference games. Yes, certain years you have 5 home and 6 road games in conference, but I do like the idea, you'll still have 7 to 8 home games (same as now) and you'll have 1 to 2 more BCS teams coming in each year.
Although a written contract would obviously be more iron-clad, the first thing you learn in Contracts in law school is that a "contract" can be oral and binding, and does not have to be in writing.
That being said, if one side backed out, I doubt the other side would pursue legal remedies of any sort, for no other reason than not wanting to look like either of us "need" each other. And it would just be kind of lame for a program of the history and prestige of either UM or ND to say to the other, "hey! you gotta play us! I'm gonna get an injunction in Federal Court!"
Although it could be argued that breaking an understanding/gentleman's agreement/oral contract is equally as lame.
While I like playing rivalry games I hope we can take some years off in the future so we can finally schedule some other big time games.