The Setup:
Notre Dame football has seemingly sunk to an all-time low. In an attempt to rejuvenate a dormant football powerhouse, Notre Dame fires Bob Davie its head coach of the past 5 seasons. The Irish turned to Georgia Tech headman George O'Leary, only to force his resignation amid scandal after only 5 days.

Added to this confusion, Notre Dame has finally agreed to enter the Big 10 for football. Amid much controversy, the Big 10 made room for Notre Dame by forcing Indiana to leave the conference.

With the list of promising candidates dwindling day after day, the Fighting Irish contacted you about the job. You are a promising young assistant coach with a knack for gameplanning, a keen eye for recruiting, and a bulletproof resume. But what they are most impressed with is your fiery enthusiasm for football. You ARE the right man for this job.

Notre Dame's Initial Prestige:

Overall prestige: 80
Prestige ranking: 41st (tie with several others)
Big 10 rank: 8th (tie with Minnesota)

Academic prestige: 56
Academic ranking: 33rd
Big 10 rank: 9th

THE RIVALRY BONUS

One thing that makes Notre Dame football so unique is the number of legitimate rivalries that have developed between the Fighting Irish and other college teams. In this Challenge, players will be rewarded for their performance against the traditional rivals of Notre Dame. With the move to the Big 10, Notre Dame will automatically face three of its biggest rivals, Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue, during conference play. These three teams will not be included in the rivalry bonus.

Over the course of the 20 season dynasty, players will be required to schedule a home/home series with 6 of 8 rivals. I am allowing players to skip two of these teams due to the difficulty scheduling teams, and to create more equity between dynasties. For instance, if I were to require all players to play the same 6 teams certain players would face more challenging opposition because of the different team trajectories that occur in TCY. Choosing 6 of 8 should allow all players to schedule the most favorable matchups and avoid any truly dominant teams.

Each player will be rewarded 200 bonus points for each game they beat a rival for a possible range of 0-2,400 additional points.

The 8 rivals are listed on "The Rivals Page"