There has been a lot of conflicting reports over the Notre Dame – Wisconsin game scheduled to take place at Lambeau Field in October. On Saturday though, we got some clarity, at least for now, from someone who should be in the know – Green Bay Packers CEO Mark Murphy. According to him, the game is still set to be played at Lambeau, as planned.
In a Q&A on the Packers official website, Murphy was asked about the Notre Dame – Wisconsin game.
I’m glad you brought this issue up, Matt. There was a report last week that erroneously stated that the Wisconsin-Notre Dame game this year would be played in South Bend rather than Lambeau Field. We have talked to representatives from both Notre Dame and Wisconsin, and they’ve confirmed that they are still planning to play the game at Lambeau Field. I do think that college football will be played this year. Like the NFL, the colleges have three months before the football season will start, and we will both be able to learn from the other sports over the next few months to see what works and doesn’t work in terms of holding games. The colleges also have the issue of whether their campuses will be open to students, which may impact the decision of whether to play games. Obviously, the key factor here will be the status of the virus and how our efforts at slowing the spread have worked.
Last weekend, the Irish Illustrated podcast reported that Lambeau Field was likely out as the destination for the Notre Dame – Wisconsin game and that the game would probably be played at Notre Dame Stadium. Such a move would have repercussions next year as well since Wisconsin’s “home” game in this series is set to be played at Soldier Field in Chicago in 2021. Not playing at Lambeau this year jeopardizes that venue for next year too.
Shortly after that report surfaced, however, Wisconsin officials told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that it was news to them that the game might not be played at Lambeau.
After a week of conflicting reports, the only thing that seems clear right now is that there’s a lot to the 2020 Notre Dame football schedule that is still set to take place as planned, but not much is completely set in stone and could be subject to change.
We learned last week that the Notre Dame – Navy game, set to be played in Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, moved to Annapolis, Maryland, where the two teams will play in Navy-Marine Corps Stadium for the first time ever. The game is also a week later now as well. It was initially scheduled for August 29, but instead will be played on September 5 or 6.
Expect there to be a lot of reports of potential game and venue changes for Notre Dame this year given the number of NFL venues set to host them in 2020 – especially once we see what happens when teams around the country start practicing together regularly. We’ve already seen COVID-19 cases pop up at places like Alabama that rushed their players back to campus and into practice environments before they had test results in hand.
We’ll know more about the implications of Notre Dame’s plan to bring its players back to campus and start practicing. The University announced last week that players will start to return to campus tomorrow and will be quarantined at the Morris Inn prior to any official workouts start on June 22.
Watched the Bucs-Packers Saturday, dunno but maybe because the video wasn’t blurred by falling ‘real’ snow, got a good glimpse of Lambeau. That’s a weird seating stadium. Most seats are behind the end zones. Don’t stadiums make their most money on seats between the 30’s? Compare it to Arrowhead.