ND's longest rivalry is Navy (96 games), followed by USC (94), and then Purdue (84). Purdue was a annual football game for many years and about fifty years ago, ND and Purdue were also annual opponents in basketball (23). Circa 1990, there were annual games in women's hoops and that resumes again this year. All sports considered, Purdue is ND's all-time most frequent opponent.
It seems probable that USC will end their annual rivalry with ND. If they planned to continue the series, they would have done so by now. It would be wise for ND's AD to formulate a Plan B. Here is my proposal, which is copied and pasted from an email that I sent to Purdue's AD, Mike Bobinski, earlier this week. Be aware that Bobinski is a Domer. He attended ND on a baseball scholarship. Text begins:
"It appears that the annual rivalry game between Notre Dame and Southern Cal may become unraveled. Neither school has the other on its future schedules after 2026 and USC Coach Lincoln Riley has recently made comments to the effect that discontinuing the series would be a competitive advantage for the Trojans (link below).
"If the ND-USC rivalry game is indeed discontinued, I propose that Purdue and Notre Dame renew their annual rivalry on Thanksgiving weekend with an end-of-season game being played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indy. An indoor venue would allow for prime time night game in late November and more students of both schools would be in Indy over the extended weekend than on campus.
"Several years ago, I sent an email to then-President Mitch Daniels in which I proposed that the Old Oaken Bucket game be moved to Lucas Oil Stadium on Thanksgiving weekend. I have been to several OOB games in West Lafayette and Bloomington and the stadiums were 20-40% empty with the students away from campus. Mitch responded that Purdue had previously proposed moving the game to Indy but that IU would not agree to do so.
"Thus the annual plan would entail moving the OOB game to the weekend before Thanksgiving, when students would be on campus, and then playing ND the following weekend at Indy. I believe you would agree that having Notre Dame as our end-of-season “archrival” would enhance the stature of Purdue’s football program and of the university itself. And it may well be that your counterpart in South Bend may be developing a scheduling void that needs to be filled."
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