Okay, let’s talk about planning my 2025 Notre Dame football season. See, every May, I grab my beat-up notebook – yeah, the one with coffee stains from 2023 – and block out home game dates. Why? Because if you blink, good tickets vanish. This time felt different though. New conference vibe. Big Ten logo plastered everywhere. Gave me the itch to map out the can’t-miss weekends early.
Phase 1: The Raw Data Dump
First, I hit the official site and just copied-pasted the full home schedule into a text file. No overthinking. Straight chaos:
- Northern Illinois (Aug 30)
- Miami (OH) (Sep 6)
- Purdue (Sep 13)
- Louisville (Oct 4)
- USC (Oct 12)
- Florida State (Nov 15)
- Navy (Nov 29)
Total mess on screen. Felt like alphabet soup with numbers.
Phase 2: The Highlight Run
Grabbed my phone, called three buddy alums. Beer-and-pretzels conference call. Rule: no overcomplicating. We yelled out games that made us go “hell yeah” instantly. Took notes on a pizza box:
- USC – obviously, that hate runs deep
- Florida State – new conference blood, gonna be wild
- Navy – tradition, cold weather, feels like football should
The rest? Meh. Couldn’t get excited about Miami (OH) on a sleepy September noon.
Phase 3: Reality Check
Stared at my bank app. Ouch. Can’t swing all three trips to South Bend from Chicago. Had to murder one darling. Navy’s late November date? Flight prices were insane already. Florida State would wreck my November work schedule. So USC won by knockout. Night game? Check. Historical spite? Double-check. Easy sell to the wife – California friends wanna tailgate.
Final Moves
Woke up at 6 AM on ticket release day. Drank terrible gas station coffee. Refreshed the site until my finger cramped. Snagged two tickets for USC at section 124. Paid more than I told my wife, obviously. Immediately circled October 12 with neon Sharpie on the kitchen calendar and sent passive-aggressive calendar invites to the crew.
So here’s the damage:
- USC (Oct 12): Priority one. Hotels booked.
- Navy (Nov 29): If bonus cash appears.
- Florida State (Nov 15): Maybe next life.
Moral? Always hunt the big fish first. The rest is noise. Now I just gotta survive until October.