Coronavirus: Notre Dame-Navy game to be played for first time ever in Annapolis
The Notre Dame vs. Navy college football season opener has been moved from Ireland to Annapolis due to the coronavirus.
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The first kickoff of the entire 2020 college football season was to be Saturday, Aug. 29, when Notre Dame faced Navy in the Aer Lingus Classic from Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. However, like every other sports event in the world, the coronavirus has changed things. The game will now be played at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Md., on either Saturday or Sunday of Labor Day Weekend (Sept. 5 or 6) and televised by ESPN or ABC.
This will be the 94th consecutive playing of the longest continuous intersectional rivalry in the country but the first time ever it will be held in Navy's home stadium.
That Navy hasn't hosted the Irish seems impossible, but the Middies' home games in the series usually are in NFL stadiums. This was to be the third meeting in Dublin, joining 1996 and 2012. There was some talk about playing this year's game at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore but there wasn't much of a point because there may be no fans (or at least not a usual size crowd) in attendance.
Notre Dame projects as around a 15-point favorite for the game. The Irish are due back 12 starters from last year's 11-2 team. Quarterback Ian Book, who is +2800 on the moneyline odds to win the Heisman Trophy at William Hill sportsbook, is one of those returnees. In last year's 52-20 rout of Navy, Book was 14-for-20 for 284 yards and five touchdowns – four to Chase Claypool. He was a second-round pick in April's draft by the Steelers.
Navy brings 13 starters back from an 11-2 team. However, record-setting quarterback Malcolm Perry is not one of them. He was a seventh-round pick of the Miami Dolphins. The Midshipmen have won just two of the past 10 vs. the Irish but have covered in six of those.
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