SOUTH BEND, Ind. — This certainly would fall under the category of ambitious scheduling: Notre Dame attempted to start its 2012 football season in Ireland and end it in Hawaii.
Too many logistical roadblocks impeded the way, but the Irish and Hawaii were in discussions to schedule a Dec. 1 season finale in Honolulu — basically as a going-away present for seniors Manti Te’o and Robby Toma.
The ill-fated talks were first reported by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, and Te’o took to Twitter to thank Notre Dame for the effort. Evidently, there was no feasible way to bump South Alabama from that Dec. 1 slot on Hawaii’s calendar and insert the Irish.
“It was a long shot from the beginning because Hawaii already had a game scheduled on the one date we could play,” said John Heisler, Notre Dame’s senior associate athletic director. “There were lengthy conversations across the board, but we couldn’t get