COLLEGE FOOTBALL ’88 : Invitations to Kickoff Game Could Go to UCLA, Notre Dame

If both teams have good seasons this fall, UCLA and Notre Dame probably will be invited to play next season in the Kickoff game, a spokesman for college football’s annual season-opening showcase at East Rutherford, N.J., said Tuesday.

However, Les Unger, director of intercollegiate athletics for the Meadowlands, said UCLA Coach Terry Donahue has rejected past inquiries about participating in the game, which in six years hasn’t featured Notre Dame or a Pacific 10 Conference team. “It’s premature to call it an automatic,” Unger said of a possible matchup between the schools, which have not met since 1964.

He said, however, that if both teams have good seasons, they would be desirable candidates for the game, “although there would have to be a change in the philosophy about this game at UCLA.”

Donahue said that it would be unfair to ask his players to cut short their summer vacations to participate in the game, which is played in the last week of August.

“I think it would be an extreme hardship on their ability to get summer jobs, on their ability to take extra units toward graduation in summer school,” Donahue said. “It would present them with some unfair hardships that aren’t necessary, just in the cause of making money (for the school).”

However, Donahue said he wouldn’t rule out the possibility. “If the team felt real strong about it and wanted to do it, I’d do it,” he said. “We’ve never taken a straw vote, but I have mentioned it casually to two or three players, and the problems I just mentioned were brought up by them.”

Unger said invitations would be extended early next year.