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STAR-ADVERTISER / 2008
Kealoha Pilares broke a tackle by Notre Dame’s Maurice Crum during the 2008 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl.
The University of Hawaii is talking to Notre Dame and Wisconsin about scheduling home-and-home football packages, officials said.
"We’ve had some discussions with Notre Dame, but nothing has materialized at this point," UH athletic director Jim Donovan confirmed.
He said the dates being considered with the Fighting Irish, "are out toward 2017, ’18 … or beyond. Wisconsin is in the same boat in it is something that is being considered."
UH last played the Fighting Irish in the 2008 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, and all three of its meetings with Notre Dame have been at Aloha Stadium, where UH is 0-3. A Notre Dame spokesman declined comment.
The Warriors are 1-5 against Wisconsin, with all but a 1987 game played here.
"We’re interested in playing quality teams on a home-and-home basis as long as the math and the date and seasons work out," Donovan said.
Depending upon what is decided at next month’s Mountain West Conference Board of Directors’ meetings, UH schedules could be full through 2015 or ’16. Conference CEOs are to decide whether members will play an eight- or nine-game conference schedule from 2014 on. Schedules for 2012, which will be UH’s first season in the new 10-member MWC, and ’13, already have been set at eight conference games.
Wisconsin and Notre Dame have been two of the better lures for bringing fans from the mainland. The Badgers brought an estimated 6,000 fans in 2005 and about 4,000 in 2009.
