Wisconsin Wants Notre Dame in Football

It's not just a Wisconsin thing. Numerous football programs from BCS conferences have made a bad habit of scheduling cupcakes in recent years. Of course, Wisconsin has been as bad an offender as anyone. They play a Division I-AA (er, FCS) team every season, and sometimes they manage to almost lose.

Former football coach and current athletic director Barry Alvarez seems hell-bent on changing the perception that Wisconsin doesn't play anyone outside of the Big Ten schedule.

In what can serve as a good first step toward scheduling respectability, Alvarez told a Madison radio show Tuesday that Wisconsin is trying to add a series of games with Notre Dame.

According to Alvarez, Notre Dame officials are revamping their annual series with Big Ten Conference member and longtime rival Purdue. Instead of facing the Boilermakers every season, Notre Dame would like to face Purdue every other season.

When Alvarez spoke during a clinic at Notre Dame earlier this spring he informed Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick that UW would be interested in filling the vacancies.

"We haven't confirmed yet," Alvarez said, noting officials from Purdue and Notre Dame are still working on their respective future schedules. "But yes, there is work being done on it."

The schools have not met in football since 1964.

Wisconsin hasn't played a bowl-bound BCS conference foe since they beat West Virginia in their 2003 season opener. The non-conference schedules in years since have featured a steady diet of middling teams like Akron, San Diego State, and UNLV, along with the dregs of BCS conferences (Arizona, North Carolina, etc.).

Any sincere effort to schedule stronger has gone for naught, and one has to assume that there isn't much sincerity behind it.

If Wisconsin has a shot of scheduling Notre Dame, it sounds like the window is between 2012 and 2015. That would certainly be better than nothing.