SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Frequently part of college football's jet set, Notre Dame will give the term new meaning when it leaves behind the Golden Dome and heads to the Alamodome.

"It's a different feeling going to play a home game away from Notre Dame," tailback Armando Allen Jr. said.

The 25th-ranked Fighting Irish (5-2) will face Washington State (1-6) in San Antonio on Saturday, the first offsite home game under Notre Dame's new scheduling model that calls for the Irish to play seven games in South Bend, four road games and a home game at a neutral site.

Former athletic director Kevin White announced the plan three years ago, saying the offsite games harkened back to the barnstorming era of Knute Rockne. The goal, he said, was to go back to its roots as an independent team in football, saying "over time we've really begun to behave like a wannabe conference member."

Current athletic director Jack Swarbrick, hired in July 2008, has a different view. He sees the games as a way to promote the university rather than the football team.

"We don't need to go somewhere to promote Notre Dame football," he said.

Swarbrick also disagrees with White on the type of teams Notre Dame should be playing in the offsite games. White said the Irish didn't want to schedule "heavyweights," saying the school needed to schedule games "conducive to success."

Originally Notre Dame had hoped to draw a Texas team to play the Irish in San Antonio, but ran into resistance from conferences that didn't want Notre Dame playing a home game within its conference footprint, mainly because it would be televised by NBC. Swarbrick believes Notre Dame will be able to get around that obstacle.

"The thing that I have found is that the other conferences have to be your partner in this. They have to go to their broadcasters to get permission," he said. "I'm fairly optimistic that conferences will help make it happen."

The only other offsite games scheduled so far are against Army at Yankee Stadium next season and against Arizona State at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, in 2013. White scheduled the Arizona State game, while Swarbrick scheduled the Army game.

While the Black Knights don't qualify as a heavyweight, Swarbrick said the game makes sense from a historical perspective. Two of Notre Dame's greatest wins came against Army in 1913 and in 1928, as well as a 0-0 tie in 1946.

CONNECTICUT

WITNESSES IDENTIFY ACCUSED MURDERER

Several witnesses identified the man charged with fatally stabbing a University of Connecticut football player as the killer, prosecutors said yesterday.

Two people arrested in the stabbing of 20-year-old Jasper Howard were arraigned in Rockville Superior Court in Vernon, Conn. John William Lomax III, 21, is charged with murder while his friend and co-worker, 20-year-old Hakim Muhammad, is charged with conspiracy to commit assault.

Police have not discussed a motive and the investigators' affidavits and arrest warrants are sealed.

But prosecutor Matthew Gedansky argued for a high bond, saying that several witnesses reported seeing Lomax and Muhammad involved in a minor altercation with others outside a university-sanctioned dance early Oct. 18. He said the two went back to Lomax's car and returned "in a rage" with knives, and escalated the violence. Several witnesses also identified Lomax as the person who stabbed Howard, he said.

Lomax's attorney, Deron Freeman, denied that his client stabbed Howard and said no witnesses in the affidavit could identify Lomax with 100 percent certainty. Even if all the allegations in the affidavit were true, "this was a mutual combat situation where my client was engaged," he said.

Gerald Klein, Muhammad's attorney, said that while some witnesses claim his client had something in his hand that looked like a knife, no one has offered evidence that he swung it at anyone.

Lomax's bond was kept at $2 million, while the judge set Muhammad's bond at $450,000.

OKLAHOMA

BRADFORD HAS SUCCESSFUL SURGERY ON SHOULDER

Oklahoma's Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Sam Bradford had surgery on his injured right shoulder yesterday and the school called it a success.

In a release sent out by the school, Bradford's father says Dr. James Andrews informed him that the procedure went "just as we expected."

Kent Bradford said his son was experiencing some soreness, but was otherwise resting comfortably in Alabama after a 35-minute surgery. The quarterback, who had sprained the AC joint in his shoulder, was expected to return to Oklahoma within a day or two.

Bradford has said he plans to enter the NFL draft if his recovery goes as planned. That process is expected to take four to six months.