Why is Navy vs. Notre Dame in Dublin? Fighting Irish's hopes to expand college football fan base in Ireland, explored

The No.13-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Navy Midshipmen will kick off the 2023 college football season this weekend. The two teams will be playing across the Atlantic Ocean, however, as the game will take place at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland.

Aaron Horvath, who serves as an athletics department spokesman and brand specialist for Notre Dame, discussed the goal of playing in Ireland with the Associated Press:

"Our goal here is to expand the brand and bring Notre Dame to the world. Our competitors in branding are the Yankees, they’re the Lakers, they’re the Cowboys. The Notre Dame monogram is one of the strongest logos in the United States and maybe in the world when you think about it from a sporting perspective.

"We just hope Ireland opens people’s eyes to Notre Dame and college football and college athletics a little bit. We believe it does that."

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick discussed the decision in a press release when the game was announced in 2021:

"We’re thrilled to be able to provide another opportunity for our team and fans to experience the culture and hospitality of Ireland. This trip overseas continues to strengthen our academic and athletic presence around the globe.

"Bringing a Notre Dame football home game atmosphere to Ireland has been a goal of ours and we couldn’t be more excited to partner with the Naval Academy to make it happen.”

The two teams previously clashed at Aviva Stadium in the 2012 season opener. The Fighting Irish emerged victorious in a 50-10 blowout en route to an appearance in the national championship game that season. Notre Dame and Navy were set to return to Ireland for the season opener in 2020, however, the COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancelation of the game.

Notre Dame athletic director discusses changing college football landscape

The college football landscape has been drastically altered by conference realignment. Notre Dame Fighting Irish athletic director Jack Swarbrick discussed the changes on "The Dan Patrick Show."

Brett McMurphy of The Action Network shared his comments, tweeting:

"Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick tells @dpshow it’s 'a complete disaster' what’s happened in college athletics. 'Everybody in the industry has to take responsibility here. I'm not excluding myself from that. I think the decision making lost its way in terms of the focus of the student athlete and what's primarily best for them.'

"On Stanford/Cal to ACC: 'You can't have two of the great academic institutions in the world not have a place to play. We're working on (a solution). There's still consideration of the ACC as a home for those schools'. On Pac-12 dying: 'It's looking that way more and more every day, yes.'"

Check out Brett McMurphy's tweet here.

While the Fighting Irish remain independent in college football, they are a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference in every other sport. They voted in favor of adding the California Bears and Stanford Cardinal. However, the expansion was one vote short of approval. Conference officials have reportedly re-entered discussions about the additions.