In response to a media question this morning, Greg Schiano refuted the LA Times report that Rutgers and UCLA considered playing at Giants Stadium next year. His comment jibes with everything we heard a year ago about not finalizing the Notre Dame series; Rutgers is spending a lot of money to expand their stadium, and they have no intention of wasting that money or giving away home field advantage. Fair enough.
However, consider the following hypothetical. What if say, someone from Michigan's athletic department (chosen because of their brand appeal on the national level and in the Northeast) called tomorrow with the following offer: a one-off game in the new Giants Stadium next year, tickets and revenue split 50/50. It's overwhelmingly unlikely, but still in the realm of semi-plausibility. Would Rutgers be able to turn down something like that? Certainly, if there ever was another game anticipated on the scale of Rutgers/Louisville 2006, RU would have to weigh surrendering the home field advantage derived from playing on campus with the chance to rake in selling up to nearly 30,000 additional tickets in East Rutherford.
This is important because, there's a press conference at Giants Stadium tomorrow, and all indications are that it will be used to announce several future Notre Dame dates (likely against Navy, maybeeeee against Syracuse if they're willing to sacrifice a home date). Rutgers fans can't exactly complain about anyone moving in on our turf, since Rutgers has shown no intention of playing lopsided deals or surrendering dates at Rutgers Stadium. Maybe there will even be something about a new bowl game.
Notre Dame has been at the forefront of the recent neutral site game hysteria, securing deals to play Army at Yankee Stadium (which is considered a ND home game I believe), and shifting their game with Navy next year to the new Giants Stadium. The Domers did not show this impetus to maintain a presence in the New York City area until recently. Every particular strategy will have its own specific advantages and drawbacks. Rutgers needs to play in Rutgers Stadium for the most part, but if the right opportunity were ever to present itself, should consider scheduling occasional contests in East Rutherford.
Update: Banked posts be damned. Syracuse will give up three home games to play USC once and Notre Dame twice in the new Giants Stadium. I wonder how their fanbase will react, given that UConn fans and Connecticut state legislators essentially forced the Huskies to cancel a similar series with ND.