Saturday’s Notre Dame-Boston College matchup looks set to stay on schedule after a nationwide FAA ground stop briefly threw a bunch of college football travel plans into uncertainty Friday evening.
The issue with air traffic control communications prompted the FAA to halt flights nationwide, and almost immediately, several games around the country started to look shaky. Some teams were never going to be affected. Others were suddenly staring at delays, or even the possibility of long bus rides to get to road games.
Boston College, though, got out ahead of the mess. The Eagles were already in the air before the ground stop was announced, and they have reportedly since landed safely in South Bend. That means the game between the Irish and Eagles appears good to go.
Notre Dame is trying to keep building its case for a high College Football Playoff seed after moving from No. 11 to No. 5 this past week following its win over Miami. Boston College’s arrival keeps that path clear for Saturday, at least for now.
The Irish and Eagles have played a rivalry that has been one-sided in recent years, but it still carries plenty of appeal, especially when the uniforms are part of the show.
Notre Dame wasn’t the only team spending part of Friday wondering whether its game would happen. Plenty of programs with CFP implications were caught up in the uncertainty, and in a season where Hunter Yurachek has repeatedly pointed to schedule strength while explaining rankings, very few games feel truly irrelevant.
Among the teams that had already traveled or were otherwise clear to play were Boston College at Notre Dame, Cincinnati at Iowa State, Duke at Miami, JMU at UConn, Kansas at WVU, Louisville at UNC, Michigan at Oregon, Missouri at Georgia, Nebraska at Rutgers, Stanford at Virginia Tech, Syracuse at NC State, Texas Tech at Oklahoma State, UAB at Temple, and Wisconsin at Maryland.
Alabama is driving to Vanderbilt, while East Carolina is driving to Charlotte and Georgia Tech is driving to Clemson.
A separate group of teams had flights caught in the FAA ground stop, including Arizona State at UCF, Baylor to BYU, FAU to Tulsa, Kansas State to TCU, Minnesota to Penn State, Ole Miss to Oklahoma, Purdue to Iowa, Tennessee to Texas A&M, Texas to LSU, Tulane to Rice, UNLV to New Mexico, Utah at Arizona, and Washington to Michigan State.
Of those, Texas vs LSU, Tennessee vs Texas A&M, and Utah vs Arizona look like the games with the biggest playoff implications right now.
For Notre Dame, though, the important part is simple: the trip is done, the opponent is in town, and the game should be played. The Irish will try to make it 9-1.
In Other News...
Notre Dame Independence Suddenly Looks Smarter Than Ever
The College Football Playoffs move from 12 teams to 24 starting next year has already sent a ripple through the sport, and it has only sharpened the appeal of Notre Dames long-standing independence. As the Autonomy 4 conferences move to eliminate their championship games, the old arguments about needing a league title to secure a playoff spot suddenly look a lot different, especially for a program that has never depended on a conference structure to define its path.
Wake Forest coach Jake Dickert and Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz have both publicly raised questions about whether conferences still matter in the same way under the new format, and that kind of debate is exactly the sort of thing Notre Dame has been insulated from for years. With schools like Miami also weighing what these changes mean for conference affiliation and structure, the Irish find themselves in a familiar but newly relevant position: outside the system, yet perhaps better positioned than ever to benefit from it. [Read more 🡒]
Notre Dame Gets Big Wins, A Fresh Freeman Hint And Heartbreak
A busy stretch around Notre Dame delivered plenty to talk about, starting with hockey, where Sammy Nelson scored twice and buried the overtime winner in a 3-2 upset of No. 4 Michigan State. The Irish have now won three straight, and freshman goalie Patrick Quinlan kept the surge going with 33 saves for his third consecutive victory, a strong sign that the team is finding real traction at both ends of the ice.
The momentum carried into mens basketball, where Ethan Roberts poured in a career-high 36 points and matched the program mark for made 3-pointers in a game during a 99-59 rout of South Carolina State. On the football side, Marcus Freeman offered an encouraging update on young cornerbacks Khary Adams and Ayden Pouncey while also leaving the door open on Brauntae Johnsons recovery, even as the program was also dealing with the sudden passing of broadcaster Dan Hicks. [Read more 🡒]
Former Notre Dame QB Sam Hartman Is Headed For A Very Different Spotlight
Sam Hartmans football path has taken another unexpected turn, this time far from the practice field. The former Notre Dame quarterback, now on the Washington Commanders practice squad, has been announced as the new star of ABCs "The Bachelor" for its 30th season, adding a very different kind of attention to a player who was already familiar to Irish fans from his stops at Wake Forest and Notre Dame.
For Notre Dame followers, it is one more reminder that Hartmans post-college life is unfolding in unusual fashion. He is still attached to Washington as a practice squad quarterback, but his next major public role will come on television when the new season of "The Bachelor" premieres in March, putting him in a spotlight that has little to do with football and everything to do with prime-time exposure. [Read more 🡒]