The 2020 college football season for Notre Dame kicksoff at about 2:40 p.m. today against the Duke Blue Devils.

A few months ago, many people, including myself, would have bet that there would be no college football this fall. That is still a possibility considering the COVID-19 crisis is continuing with no end in sight.,

How long the season will last is anyone’s guess because playing the games could change things in a week, two weeks, or a month. Playing any kind of sport has been a struggle with all the questions surrounding this world wide health crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made 2020 like no other year in the history of the United States, and hopefully, it will be the last year that the U.S., and the world, goes through something like this again.

The season begins today and the pandemic has put so many traditions on hold.

For ND it means for the first time in the 133 year history of ND football the Irish will abandon their independence for one year and be part of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), playing a full conference schedule plus one non-conference game. The Irish will be eligible for the ACC championship this year - obviously the first time the Irish will play for a regular season conference title.

The ACC bailed the Irish out and ND is thankful for it. The offer by the ACC did not come without some cost. The cost is that this year ND must share its NBC money with the other schools in the ACC, and that amounts to several millions of dollars.

With conferences ordering their schools to play conference schedules only, ND’s 2020 schedule took a major hit. The Big Ten and Pac-12 deciding not to play football this fall had already cost ND games with Stanford, USC and Wisconsin. The ACC restriction on who teams could play their one non-conference game against ruled out contests with Arkansas, Western Michigan and Navy.

Notre Dame was able to fill its non-conference schedule opening with South Florida. The rest of the 11-game card will be against ACC opponents.

The outlook

ND enters today’s opener with the real possibility that it could have a 10 or 11 win season and make a run at the national championship. With teams like Stanford, USC and Wisconsin off the schedule - replaced with Boston College, Syracuse and North Carolina - the Irish are in a good position to reach double digit wins. I’m not taking anything away from BC, Syracuse or North Carolina but there is a difference.

ND begins ranked No. 10 and according to a recent poll of ACC schools, is ranked second in that conference to Clemson, which is predicted to win everything this year.

Quarterback Ian Book returns for his third season as the starter and, despite some down times, his overall play has been a major plus for the Irish and its offense. Sophomore Kyren Williams has been a real surprise so far this fall and appears to have won the starting running back position.

The Irish have all five starters - Liam Eichenberg, left tackle; Aaron Banks, left guard; Tommy Kraemer, right guard; Robert Hainey, right tackle; and Jarrett Patterson, center - from last year’s offensive line back.

The Irish also have some talent returning in the receiving corps in Braden Lenzy, Lawrence Keys III, Kevin Austin Jr. (he will miss the first part of the season with an injury) and Ben Skowronek. Tight end Tommy Tremble is also in line for a big season.

On the other side of the ball the defensive line is as deep and as talented as ND has had in several years. Daelin Hayes is reportedly determined to deliver on that five-star recruiting ranking with his best season. Adetokunbo Oqundeji should be a pass-rush terror and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah is ready to be a dominant defender from his rover position.

Also back is sophomore defensive back great Kyle Hamilton. Of course he has big shoes to fill in the leadership role with the graduation of Jalen Elliott and Alohi Gilman.

Others who should have key roles on the defense are d-backs Nick McCloud, TaRig Bracy, Shaun Crawford, KJ Wallace and Houston Griffith; linemen M. Tagovailoa-Amosa and Kurt Hinish and linebackers Drew White and Shane Simon.

Special teams are in good shape with returnees Jonathan Doerer, place kicker and kickoffs; Jay Bramblett, punter and holder; Alex Peitsch, long snapper; Kyren Williams punt returns; and Braden Lenzy, kickoff returns.

Today will be the seventh meeting between ND and Duke with the Irish leading the series, 4-2. ND won last year, 38-7. Duke last won in 2016, 38-35.

IRISH NOTE ... NBC Sports announced that its broadcasts of Notre Dame football home games will no longer feature former Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie as the in-game analyst alongside play-by-play broadcaster Mike Tirico. Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy will replace Flutie in the booth. Dungy, the former head coach of the Indianapolis Colts and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has worked as a studio and in-game analyst for NBC’s NFL coverage since 2009. Notre Dame and NBC Sports also announced the kickoff times for the first five Irish home games. The Oct. 10 game against Florida State and the Nov. 7 game with Clemson, will have 7:30 p.m. kickoffs. Today’s game and the Oct. 17 game with Louisville, 2:30 p.m. The USF game will also be at 2:30 p.m. but will be televised by the USA network. That weekend NBC will be covering the PGA’s U.S. Open Championship. NBC Sports Network, to which Notre Dame has been relegated before, will likely have a broadcast of the NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs that Saturday too. All other games are on NBC. The kickoff time for the Syracuse game on Dec. 5 has yet to be set by NBC. This is the 30th year of ND football on NBC. The current contract runs through the 2025 season ... Other changes due to COVID-19 include: The ND marching band will be in the stadium but will have social distancing and will not perform on the field before or at halftime; pep rallies, tunnel tours, the player walk, tailgating - among others - all have been eliminated this fall; and socially distancing in the stadium mean sitting in the stands as part of the home crowds capped at 15,525 in the 77,622-seat facility ... Five players have been named as team captains: quarterback Ian Book, offensive tackle Robert Hainsey, defensive ends Daelin Hayes and Adetokunbo Ogundeji and safety Shaun Crawford. Book and Hainsey were both Notre Dame captains last season. They have become the 23rd and 24th players in program history to serve as a captain for more than one season ... ND has four graduate transfers on the roster who will play key roles this season. They are CB Nick McCloud (North Carolina State), S Isaiah Pryor (Ohio State), WR Ben Skowronek (Northwestern) and K/P Dawson Goepferich (Brown) ... ND has reached 10 wins for three consecutive seasons, the first time since the 1991-93 seasons....ND returns 13 starters from last year’s 11-win season....ND completed an undefeated home slate for the second consecutive season in 2019. The last time they did it was 1988-89 seasons ... Now my annual prediction for the 2020 season. ND opens with a win over Duke, 1-0; ND gets another win, this time over USF, 2-0; ND goes to Wake Forest and wins, 3-0; a night game in South Bend with Florida State and a victory, 4-0; Louisville visits and loses to the Irish, 5-0; Pitt hosts ND and the Irish win, 6-0; George Tech give Irish early fits, but falls, 7-0; Clemson ends Irish win streak, 7-1; ND rebounds against Bostone College, 8-1; North Carolina falls to the Irish, 9-1; Syracuse loses in South Bend, 10-1 ... This year as been so different for so many due to the pandemic. This ends my streak of seeing ND at home at least once a year, since 1978. I was scheduled to go to ND this weekend and again at the end of October, but due to the health crisis, I settled on the side of caution and will break my streak ... ND is favored by 20 points today. The Irish should prevail but I’m never comfortable saying they will cover the line.