Notre Dame to Play Utah in 2010?

Lost in the news of Kevin White’s departure this weekend was a blurb in the Salt Lake Tribune that Notre Dame and Utah are close to agreeing to a 1 game series in South Bend in 2010.

Playing the Irish not only would give Utah a game against one of the most prestigious football programs in the country, but would also assure the Utes of national exposure since the Irish have a contract through 2010 with NBC to televise every Irish home game.

“That’s a very appealing proposition for recruiting,” Whittingham said.

The Utes are scheduled to play at Utah State and Iowa State in 2010, so some changes must be made to give the Utes two home and two away nonconference games.

According to Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham, the deal is not definite yet.

“It’s not an absolute yet, but we’re excited about the prospect of playing at South Bend, it’s a great venue and a great opponent,” he said. “For Utah to play at Notre Dame would be a great opportunity.”

Whittingham said if one of the other road games can’t be moved that it could potentially be a deal breaker for the Notre Dame agreement.

“We’d hate to do that, but it’s not desirable to play seven away, you always want six and six,” he said. “Hopefully it’s something we can work out.”

A one game deal with Utah wouldn’t be too bad of an idea if it were to be at the beginning of the season like this year’s San Diego State game is.  A lot of people ridiculed Kevin White for the SDSU deal, but having a game against an opponent like Utah before the early season gauntlet the Irish usually face would be a good thing.