I Hate Notre Dame and Would Love to Personally Hand Them a Loss.

As of almost half past four, the Norwich Bulletin is reporting that Notre Dame and UConn are nearing terms for an impending "home-home" series.  The deal was originally reported to be a ten year series with the first two games played in South Bend and alternating home and home from there on.  Notre Dame would be playing their home games at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ and UConn would play their home games in Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA.  Several Connecticut legislatures made a stink about this deal for obvious reasons.  They claimed there was no reason for ND to be able to weasel its way out of a game or two in Rentschler.  Why, they asked, would UConn want to play a home game so far away from home?

I hate Notre Dame.  I cannot stress that enough.  I really, truly, deeply, fucking hate Notre Dame.  With a burning, white hot, sexual passion.  They are an arrogant and delusional fan base who their failures for much of the past 15 years with such cliches as "tradition", "honor", and other shit that hasn't been relevant since the first time your parents fucked.  

It pains me to say this.  But playing Notre Dame is the best thing that UConn could hope for.  Whether or not they play in Rentschler, Foxborough, or Mars, they will be playing in front of a national audience.  The name of the game is exposure.  The lawmakers who deride the deal as being unfair (and it sure as hell is!) fail to consider that the Huskies are still a very young program.  They've been DI for only 8 years.  8 years.  While the program has made great strides recently, especially last year's 9-4 season in which they knocked off ranked opponents for the first time ever, it is still experiencing those DI growing pains.  

By playing ND and thereby assuring themselves a Saturday afternoon on NBC, the Huskies open themselves up to a much wider recruiting base.  Most of the nation still considers the Huskies (and, on a larger scale, the Big East) a novelty, a flash in the pan type, and wonder when Edsall will leave for bigger and better things.  Playing (and beating) Notre Dame would go a long way towards dispelling the notion that UConn is a basketball school pretending it can play big boy football.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, would be sweeter than garnishing my autumn with a win over the Golden Domers.