In A.C.C., the Irish Go Far Afield To Retain a Sense of Independence

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — A typical college football regular season is 12 games, with most top programs figuring out a way to have seven home games.

But Jack Swarbrick, Notre Dame’s athletic director, deserves some kind of medal — perhaps it is time for a Nobel Prize in Mathematics — for the scheduling feat he pulled off this season, in which Notre Dame will play only three games on an opponent’s home field.

The scheduling quirk coincided with the season in which Notre Dame, which has long maintained its independent status in football, begins its quasi membership in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Fighting Irish met their first A.C.C. opponent of the season Saturday night, facing Syracuse at MetLife Stadium, home of the Giants and the Jets. The Orange were officially the home team.

Notre Dame improved to 4-0 with a 31-15 victory. Quarterback Everett Golson had a good outing despite several turnovers, including a botched attempt to down the ball near the goal line and a fourth-quarter interception that was returned for a touchdown. Helped by a game plan heavy on screen and swing passes, Golson at one stretch completed 25 straight passes, one short of the Football Bowl Subdivision single-game record, according to The Associated Press. He finished with four touchdown passes and a career-high 362 yards, but summed up his play as “sloppy.”

“He does so many really good things, but there are things he has to experience,” Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly said, adding that there were things that Golson experienced in Saturday’s game that are “going to make him a better quarterback.”

Syracuse (2-2) appeared physically overmatched. The Orange were unable to score even after gaining 42 yards on a fake punt. Notre Dame receivers William Fuller and Corey Robinson outran or, in the case of Robinson’s third-quarter touchdown reception in the corner of the end zone, outmuscled defenders.

As in all of its previous games, Notre Dame was without five potential starters, who have been held out since the start of the season while claims of academic cheating are investigated. The results of that inquiry are expected by the end of the week.

Saturday’s game was a microcosm of how Notre Dame will handle the scheduling challenges it faces as it partly settles down in the A.C.C. with five games in the conference each year, while still playing games across the country. The Irish see a travel-heavy slate as essential to cultivating the national fan base and recruiting footprint necessary for sustaining their status as a highly competitive, independent program.

They use a number of tools to heighten their exposure.

The university’s annual Shamrock Series effectively provides a seventh home game, even though the contests are played not at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Ind., but at sites all over the map. Past iterations have been in San Antonio and Chicago, and next year’s game against Boston College will be at Fenway Park.

In November, Notre Dame will play an away game against Navy at FedEx Field in Landover, Md. Similarly, its away game next year versus Temple will be at the Philadelphia Eagles’ home, Lincoln Financial Field. The large N.F.L. stadiums should allow Notre Dame more tickets to sell than a true away game would; the university sold about 13,000 tickets to Saturday’s game against Syracuse, while a typical away game might net about 5,000 tickets.

Notre Dame’s annual rivalry contests with Southern California and Stanford guarantee it one game per year in the recruiting hotbed of California. It has home-and-homes scheduled with Texas and Georgia.

The Irish have even gone global: Two seasons ago, Navy’s home game against Notre Dame took place in Dublin, in front of a crowd that might have been expected to root for the team called the Fighting Irish.

As part of an agreement reached in 2012, Notre Dame joined the A.C.C. in all sports except football and hockey and agreed to play five football games against A.C.C. opponents per season through 2026.

Saturday night’s game, part of a prearranged series, was grandfathered in as part of Notre Dame’s A.C.C. commitment, a university representative said.

The announced crowd of 76,802 was record for a college game at MetLife Stadium. While there was much more orange than green in the stands, the stadium was loudest when the Notre Dame faithful yelled during Syracuse third downs.

Notre Dame had felt compelled to jump to the A.C.C. from the Big East, where it had been a member for most sports, after realignments relegated the latter conference to midmajor football status.

The A.C.C. deal, Notre Dame’s Swarbrick said, was “the vehicle that allows us to maintain football independence.”

The A.C.C. was unwilling to strike the deal without the five-game-per-season commitment, A.C.C. Commissioner John Swofford said. (Notre Dame will play four A.C.C. games this season and six next season.)

Swofford called the pact “win-win.”

“It gives Notre Dame a home for all of its sports and yet allows them the opportunity to maintain their independent status in football,” he said.

Swofford called Notre Dame a good fit. With Boston College, Duke, Miami, Syracuse and Wake Forest, the A.C.C. already had more private universities, like Notre Dame, as members than the four other major conferences combined.

A prime perk of conference membership, Swarbrick said, was that Notre Dame would be counted as an A.C.C. team for all bowls besides the Orange Bowl, in which it is considered part of the pool of teams from the Big Ten and the Southeastern Conference.

Of course, this season, No. 8 Notre Dame, undefeated and aspiring to make impressive statements with games against No. 16 Stanford, No. 1 Florida State and No. 18 U.S.C., hopes to appear in the Rose Bowl or the Sugar Bowl — the two games on Jan. 1 that will make up the semifinals of the first College Football Playoff.