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There is more to it than you might think. by Barney68

I used to go to one or two or even three games each year. It's a long trek from the DC area for that but it seemed to be worth it to see a place that was such a big part of my youth.

Things have changed. Some of them are me getting older and having to accept some limits on what the body will do without grievous resistance. Some of them are sort of peripheral ... the closing of a B&B in Angola that made things pretty convenient for us.

But other things have been the University's choice. It is a different place than it was back in '68. Campus has been vastly changed. I get that the old Aero building, half Quonset hut, had to go, but even the road that ran in front of the Aero department is gone. Don't ask me about the stadium.

And the University's attitude has changed. It is now an international research institution with huge money. The student body is made up of class presidents and the "most likely to succeed" crowd. I don't think I'd get in today. Importantly, in my non-alum interactions with the University, and there have been a couple, they've made it extremely clear that I was dealing with corporate Notre Dame, not a school with which I had a personal relationship.

If you believe that the personal relationship was undamaged, well, you're in error.

So here I sit in Maryland. I can spend a few bucks and expend at least 3 days to see the game on a campus that sometimes seems unrecognizable or have a better view on TV. My deep emotional relationship with the University has long since cooled. USC is, well, USC, but are they the USC I remember? No. Would I be more likely to attend if our team was playing in the way I remember as Notre Dame football? Yes. But would that be enough to overcome all those other things? Maybe, but it's not the way to bet.

ND football games were special because ND was in my heart. The head shed has been changing that for a long time and the seat I might have been in will be empty.