Although nothing is official yet, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish have made some changes to their 2026 football schedule, according to a report by Irish Illustrated Insider.
Before we dive into the changes, we’ll go over the portion of Notre Dame’s 2026 football schedule that hasn’t changed, beginning with the season-opener against the Wisconsin Badgers at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisc. The game, a Shamrock Series contest for the Irish, will be played on Sunday, Sept. 6, and it will be nationally televised by NBC.
Following the season-opener, Notre Dame is scheduled to open its home slate at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Ind., with consecutive games against the Rice Owls on Saturday, Sept. 12 and the Michigan State Spartans on Saturday, Sept. 19.
The Fighting Irish are then scheduled to make consecutive road trips to face the Purdue Boilermakers on Sept. 26 and the North Carolina Tar Heels on Oct. 3.
The only other Notre Dame game with a date next season is its annual contest against the Navy Midshipmen, which will be played on Saturday, Oct. 31 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.
Other contests that were previously announced include ACC foes Miami and SMU making the trip to South Bend and Syracuse on the road. Those contests could change, however, as the ACC continues to adjust Notre Dame’s opponents following expansion of league membership. The podcast mentioned that a road ACC game would be dropped from the schedule, which would be either North Carolina or Syracuse.
New information revealed on the Irish Illustrated Insider podcast features a likely game against the USC Trojans, although the game will reportedly be played at a neutral site. This rumor has popped up previously, but is now gaining steam.
Also reported on the podcast is that Notre Dame will host the Boston College Eagles and Stanford Cardinal in 2026, with the game against Stanford not counting as one of Notre Dame’s ACC matchups.
Additionally, the Florida State Seminoles have reportedly been dropped from Notre Dame’s 2026 schedule. This news popped up a couple of months ago when the FSU-Notre Dame game was removed from FSU’s official website. We have attempted to confirm this with Florida State, but have been unsuccessful so far.
Here is what the 2026 Notre Dame football schedule looks like following the report from Irish Illustrated Insider:
2026 Notre Dame Football Schedule (Tentative)
09/06 – vs Wisconsin (in Green Bay, WI)
09/12 – Rice
09/19 – Michigan State
09/26 – at Purdue
10/03 – at North Carolina
10/10 – HOME GAME TBA
10/17 – HOME GAME TBA
10/24 – TBA
10/31 – vs Navy (in Foxborough, MA)
11/07 – HOME GAME TBA
11/14 – TBA
11/21 – HOME GAME TBA
11/28 – TBA
TBA Games
Home – Boston College
Home – Miami (FL)
Home – SMU
Home – Stanford
Away – Syracuse
Neutral – USC
View Comments (42)
Wow! Only 3 true road games!! You can tell that ND is looking to lighten their schedule in order to make the playoffs. Their overall 2026 schedule is VERY EASY. Only two teams of any real quality ... Miami, FL and USC and neither will be on the road. The USC game will be moved to Las Vegas.
The ND doesn’t play a bunch of high school level teams like the SECupcakes do…
"Lighten" insinuates a change from normal when the Domers have played a 6-3-3 schedule before.
Also, SMU made the playoffs last year and have a shot at the ACC title (and playoffs) this year.
I'll always brag about beating SMU last year.
ND playing their big ten rival USC at a neutral site......and college football gets worse again. hopefully its in Vegas so they can really make a mockery of the sport #trash
That is at the behest of USC, and NO, nobody knows why except USC folks.
Vegas would make a fantastic neutral site for Notre Dame-USC so they can have half of Fighting Irish Fans & half of Trojans Fans.
I've seen harder high school football schedules than ND's fluff schedules
I push back, 6 ACC Teams, 4 Big Ten and 2 from the American is as many or more Power opponents that almost any teams have. 3 of those teams are ranked the 2nd poll of November which is lower than some others but higher than a few as well.
Goob, your point works for UConn, go post there.
Tom I support your suggestion for Notre Dame opponents.
Pardon me for using Fan as a Michigan Wolverines Fan I want to see Michigan-Notre Dame to resurrect its long-standing rivalry again.
I am a true diehard IRISH fan but this schedule is a joke. Im sorry but I would rather have atleast 2 or 3 more top tier games besides sc and miami. If we want to be take seriously then we have to play a tougher schedule. If we are doing this to give us a better chance to make the CFP this will slowly effect recruiting. Real dawgs want to play other real dawgs not cats. If its because we want to stay independant and are having trouble getting games then maybe its time for a change! GO IRISH!@
Everybody on here overlooks SMU for some reason. SMU made the playoffs last year and is in the hunt for the ACC title this year. And did you miss that they beat "top tier" Miami?
I get that they don't have the name brand of the Trojans or the Canes but that doesn't mean they won't be a very good team.
Everyone complains about people no longer playing rivals and playing easy teams. Notre Dame plays all of their rivals and no FCS team, so naturally there's still something to complain about. They should schedule Mercer and ULM like those really good southern teams.
"All their rivals"
LOL, I had to laugh at that.
I'd been defending the Domers on here but they dropped series with Michigan, MSU, and PU (with whom they've had decades-long rivalry series).
Also, ND has played FCS schools before.
They aren't playing Grambling State and Ohio University. That's what it takes to be #1 this year.
Maybe you'd prefer they play Louisiana-Monroe and Eastern Illinois like the team sitting in the #4 spot in the CFP right now.
There is nothing wrong with Notre Dame's schedule except that most of the teams in college football wouldn't dare to play the same. They are 18th in SOS this year and this looks right around the same as that.
Notre Dame gets to curate a schedule that allows for a max of 2 losses a year and a guaranteed playoff birth. And saying 'well at least they don't play UL Monroe' as if most top big ten and sec schools wouldn't consider most of ND's schedule JUCO matchups is asinine. Also ND is 42nd in SOS, so good try. Next year they play 3 mid BIG10 teams (being generous with mid), a bottom BIG10 team, 2 G5 teams, 3 bottom ACC teams, 1 mid ACC team, and 2 real ACC teams (once again being generous). The top SEC and BIG10 teams trying to get into the CFP would consider probably 8-9 of these teams as cupcake schedule add-ons.
It is likely both Stanford and USC games will be October.
Which means 4 ACC games in November.
Note that all but 2 opponents are considered Power 4 which should mean something,
even though several of them are having a lousy 2025.
Could Rice be their typical "Marshall/NIU" upset? Doubt it.
Gotta say tho, 10-2 against this bunch doesn't look CFP worthy. Hope I'm wrong.
USC should be at the Coliseum like it always is in even years. Wouldn't be the same in a neutral site.
Z-Man CFB Fans can be violent.
USC Fans can dump Budweiser on You.
Neutral site games are very important, so they be split between Notre Dame & USC Fans & Las Vegas would be a fantastic Neutral site.
Furthermore, I did not mean to hurt you buddy however I just want to get your attention because there some cuckoo fans out there & I do not want to see anybody including you Z-Man get clobbered & I really care about you very much.
Dan, do you have a safe place for you hide at? Fans can be violent? Those two teams been playing dang near every year for 100 years and all of a sudden you’re talking about violence! Soft.
Illininoles07 Dan favors P4 OOC games at neutral sites so they can have fan bases from both teams.
Campus games are made for conference & cupcake games.
I want CFB fans be treated fairly.
USC will be out of the Coliseum for the entire 2028 season because the Coliseum is being drastically changed for the summer olympics, so if there is a 2028 USC-ND game it will also be at a neutral site, likely either SoFi or Vegas.
First time Ive heard that. Summer Olympics will be over before football season starts