ASU AD: Still hopeful Notre Dame will play in Tempe in 2014

Much has been made about Notre Dame’s apparent desire to remove a visit to Arizona State from its 2014 football schedule.

The Sun Devils, naturally, are not pleased with the idea. After all, losing a big game like the one against the Fighting Irish would be bad enough, but it would be a struggle to find a suitable replacement for them on such short notice.

“When any university seeks to try to change a schedule a year out, or these conferences try to realign and people have to change schedules a year, year and a half, two years out, it’s very difficult to find anybody to play because everybody’s booked up five, six, seven, eight years into the future,” ASU athletic director Steve Patterson told Arizona Sports 620’s Doug and Wolf Tuesday.

Patterson, who said schedules are made years an advance, noted that his school is already looking into scheduling games that are still more than five years out. So, it stands to reason other schools are in the same boat, meaning most schools have their 2014 docket set.

“The networks schedule around that, the universities schedule around that, their alumni schedule around that, the foundations and the financial folks schedule around that, the coaches and recruiting schedules around it,” Patterson said. “So it’s not just something you change from one season to the next, in football.”

So, what does that mean for the potential-but-in-peril matchup with the Fighting Irish that is set for Sun Devil Stadium next year?

“We’re continuing to have conversations with them and I’m hopeful we’ll be able to reach an accommodation that works for both schools that winds up having Notre Dame play here,” he said.

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