The ACC finally announced the start of the Notre Dame – NC State game on Saturday and for the second week in a row, Notre Dame will kick-off at 12:00 PM ET when they travel to Raleigh, North Carolina. The Irish will make the trip with a 2-3 record while the Wolfpack will host the Irish with a 3-1 record.

ABC will nationally televise the game which should make things easy for Notre Dame fans. Personally though, I have an 18 mile marathon training run in store for me on Saturday before the game which means I will be getting up hours earlier than I normally do for work to fit in the run and the game.

For Notre Dame, the early start times make for easier travel home and with Stanford on the schedule following NC State anything that can help the Irish prepare is more then welcomed. When Notre Dame traveled to Austin for the season opener and kicked off at 8:00 PM ET, they didn’t get back to campus until the early morning hours on Tuesday. Not exactly conditions prone to set up a good week of practice. And we all know how much good practice this team still needs.

If you are having a hard time remembering Notre Dame starting this many games, this early in the day you are not alone. It has been years since the Irish played this many early games. Usually the Irish are thrown into primetime slots for even weak games such as the Syracuse game two years ago. After their 1-3 start, however, the networks are not putting the Irish in prime-time.

The only unannounced start time for Notre Dame left this season is the season finale against USC on the road in LA. Like Notre Dame, USC started 1-3 this season under first year head coach Clay Helton. The Trojans beat previously unbeaten Arizona State on Saturday though to improve to 2-3.