The Notre Dame Fighting won’t be playing football tomorrow, as the Golden Domers have a bye this week. Of course... that means RUMOR SZN is in full bloom.

Several Twitter accounts have suggested that they are hearing that t hey knew your cousin back when he had a massive glue addiction Notre Dame will wear green jerseys on Senior Day against the Florida State Seminoles.

I’m not here to report the rumor, add fuel to the rumor, or give the rumor validation (even though I understand that just by talking about it here... I am basically doing all three — dammit).

I want to talk about WHY this is rumor, and WHY it could be true.

If it’s just a rumor, you can add it to the long list of rumblings about Notre Dame uniforms that never happened. If it does actually happen... I know why.

Why would Notre Dame even think about throwing a wrench into what could still be a perfect season for a playoff run? Obviously it’s all about that cash, but it won’t be about making more money — it would be about making up for money not made.

I don’t need to rehash the absolute awfulness that is the 2018 version of the Shamrock Series uniforms that Notre Dame will wear when they play the Syracuse Orange in Yankee Stadium. They suck — don’t try to defend them because they are indefensible (kind of like my writing at 4 in the morning). They’re so bad, the social media response during the unveiling was close to 80/20 in favor of HATE HATE HATE. Generally, the response has been flipped for other alternate uniforms for Notre Dame.

Once they are unveiled, the merchandise starts flying out of Under Armour warehouses and into the arms of eager fans looking for that fresh look. Throughout the season, you’d see large pockets of fans at the games proudly rocking their Shamrock Series gear.

Not this year.

The 2018 Shamrock Series gear has been almost entirely absent at Notre Dame games this year. Yes, yes... there are some combo fans of the New York Yankees and Notre Dame that LOVE the stuff, and they go to games too — but it has been noticeably diminutive when compared to previous years.

The gear isn’t selling.

Now, I haven’t kept records over the last 10 years of what goes on sale and when at the Notre Dame bookstore, but I don’t think prices ever get slashed during the middle of the football season and the Shamrock Series still a few weeks away.

Guess what? It’s ALL on sale right now. 815 Under Armour items are on sale on the Hammes Bookstore website. It’s not just old and crappy stuff — it’s new and crappy stuff too.

MY THEORY

Due to the absolute failure of the 2018 Shamrock Series merchandise, Notre Dame and Under Armour are trying to clear as much inventory as possible to minimize the losses accrued during the final quarter of the 2018 fiscal year. Because this sell-off will reduce inventory, but not meet projections, they must introduce new product to fill space and generate new business.

What has worked recently? The color green of course. It’s not a big mystery as to why the university finally embraced a “Green Out” this year as they quickly printed shirts and gear to sell before the game against the Michigan Wolverines. They blitzed the market with aggressive social media campaigns to sell the new items, and it was seemingly a huge success.

It only makes sense, from a business standpoint, to piggyback that effort and introduce another new product to, again, make up for the failure of the Shamrock Series gear.

HOW ABOUT A GREEN JERSEY? IRISH WEAR GREEN. FANS LOVE THE GREEN GEAR. WE HAVE A PRECEDENT.

Notre Dame and Under Armour already invaded a senior day game with new gear last season when they put forth the “Rockne Heritage” collection against the Navy Midshipmen. It doesn’t take a genius to think that they can and would do it again — but green.

How could they spin it? I mean, after all, they would never admit to something being a failure, and would absolutely come up with a way to spin it like they had this planned for a long time (I guess August is a long time ago).

Welcome to the Frank Leahy Heritage Collection. After all, during most of the years that Frank coached Notre Dame, the Irish wore green uniforms. This is so easy, that Adidas could do it.

DISCLAIMER

I give no weight behind the rumor of Notre Dame wearing green jerseys against Florida State. I’m simply stating that there is a rumor, and IF it is true, I have a theory about why and how this will all come about.

Carry-on with your Bye Week fun!