The Stanford Cardinal have added a home contest against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in 2025, which completes their football schedule, the school announced Monday.
Stanford will host Notre Dame at Stanford Stadium in Stanford, Calif., on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. The game will mark the 38th overall meeting between the two schools in football.
Notre Dame has recorded two consecutive victories over Stanford and has won five of the last six contests. The Fighting Irish now have a nine-game advantage in the overall series, 23-14.
The matchup with Notre Dame was announced in conjunction with the release of Stanford’s complete ACC football schedule for the 2025 season. Stanford is scheduled to open the season in Week Zero on Saturday, Aug. 23 against the Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors in Honolulu, Hawai’i.
Following an open date on Aug. 30, Stanford travels to Provo, Utah, to take on the BYU Cougars on Sept. 6. The Cardinal kick off their ACC schedule on Sept. 13 at home against the Boston College Eagles.
Below is Stanford’s complete schedule for the 2025 season, plus a link to its schedule page which will be updated with kickoff times and TV as they are announced:
2025 Stanford Football Schedule
- 08/23 – at Hawaii
- 08/30 – OFF
- 09/06 – at BYU
- 09/13 – Boston College*
- 09/20 – at Virginia
- 09/27 – San José State
- 10/04 – OFF
- 10/11 – at SMU*
- 10/18 – Florida State*
- 10/25 – at Miami*
- 11/01 – Pitt*
- 11/08 – at North Carolina*
- 11/15 – OFF
- 11/22 – California*
- 11/29 – Notre Dame
* ACC contest.
Happy to see Notre Dame playing Stanford on Thanksgiving weekend & good news that I had lots & lots of Patiences on it.
I had a feeling you were getting a warm feeling in your special place when you saw this and they would be playing on Thanksgiving weekend, like that’s important or something.
Stanford adds ND?
Hey, Kevin, is that how this works? Or did they extend a long-running series? For one game or multiple games? Or have they gotten the ACC to agree to count these games against ND’s five-per-year-on-average commitment beyond playing roughly twice every seven years, which is how it would otherwise work out?
Or was, maybe, the game already scheduled, and we just didn’t know it because both schools are outside your resourceful FOIA clutches?
“Stanford adds ND” makes it sound like they went down to 7-Eleven and bought a game with the Irish, maybe alongside a Big Gulp and a hot dog.
Otherwise, keep up the fantastic work — we treasure your site!
They likely extended the series, or it’s the ACC deal, but without an announcement we’re in the dark.
USC, Stanford, Navy, & Purdue are special to ND. The ACC was closed to expansion until ND kicked open the door for Stan. That’s why Stan in 2025, SMU in 2026, & Cal next. These games are not part of ACC-ND-ESPN deal. They can be sold to highest bidder or ESPN when they extend ACC broadcast rights.
Ignore the YOY decline in NC ratings. I expect ESPN to announce out of respect for the electorate they will no longer air NC on Inauguration days. That shaved at least a few mil from ND-OHSt. Peak 26M 7-7 score. Over 22M ND’s comeback effort from 28-7 in 3rd. Does it get back to 26M if ND makes it 31-26? Does it exceed 26M if ND takes a 32-31 lead & tries for 2? On the right day, that game Peaks at 30M. The NFL playoffs did shy of 39M.
This is why I expect ND to offer more games to both ESPN & NBC now.
ESPN gets 5 over 2 yrs. NBC gets 6 every yr. ESPN will get 4 & NBC 8 every yr.
It only makes sense for ND to do this with their new brand strength.
SoS: CFP values road wins most. Shift to 4 ND@ACC yearly including Clem/Stan.
NBC@ND: (Clem/Stan, Purdue/USC, B1GH, Navy/G5 best, SEC+B12)
NBC-ND@: USC/Purdue, B1GA.
Even if B1G goes to 10 conf games it just means more years span on a home-home series for any team.
Say MI fails CFP in 2025. ND@MI is possible in 2026. MI@ND happens as soon as MI can fit them in.
That’s what’s great about having two any B1G slots. ND has a legacy playing the B1G. They should feature those teams more often.
Locking in a G5 best means NIU can visit ND again after they go to the CFP.
USC, Stanford, Navy, & Purdue are special to ND. The ACC was closed to expansion until ND kicked open the door for Stan. That’s why Stan in 2025, SMU in 2026, & Cal next. These games are not part of ACC-ND-ESPN deal.
They can be sold to highest bidder or ESPN when they extend ACC broadcast rights.
Ignore the YOY decline in NC ratings. I expect ESPN to announce out of respect for the electorate they will no longer air NC on Inauguration days. That shaved at least a few mil from ND-OHSt. Peak 26M 7-7 score. Over 22M ND’s comeback effort from 28-7 in 3rd. Does it get back to 26M if ND makes it 31-26? Does it exceed 26M if ND takes a 32-31 lead & tries for 2? On the right day, that game Peaks at 30M. The NFL playoffs did shy of 39M.
This is what I expect from ESPN & NBC in 2025:
ESPN: We are proud to announce an extension of ACC broadcast rights thru 2036 with more ND games!
ND will visit 4 ACC schools a year including Clem or Stan.
To raise competition in the ACC we will offer 2 bonuses: ratings wins and $1M to ND’s ACC opponents.
The ACC intends to award those to those schools directly.
The ACC intends to match up their best schools vs ND.
ESPN reserves the right to match any networks offer if ND chooses to expand their ACC slate.
NBC: We are proud to announce changes to our ND slate including road games for the first time.
This includes full home-home series for USC, Purdue, & other B1G teams.
Every 2 yrs we will feature Clem, Stan, & Navy at Southbend.
Southbend action includes Best in G5, B12, & SEC teams.
They won’t mention ratings win bonus but you can expect ND will insist on it.
Heavyweights: ND should leave them for the CFP. Aim for protections as they offer best comparisons.
B1G: MISt, IA, Pur, FL, AZ, LSU, AR, UT, & KS. Yearly ND gets comparison to MI, WI, IN, IL, GA, AZSt, AL, TXAM, BYU, & KSSt. The idea is ND beats them soundly and if they upset a heavyweight ND gains big in SoS.
ND football is fixed then.
4@ACC best greatly improves SoS. CFP values road wins most.
$$: Now – ACC $44M for 5g NBC $100M for 12g ev 2 yrs. Next – $36M for 4g & $75M for 8 ev yr.
That’s just from SoS related changes alone.
Ratings win bonus could add to that, but it has to make sense. This bonus is coming from what E & N sell the events for vs what they intend to sell the next events for. When the ratings surprise there may be enough to pay a bonus.
The bonuses can’t be paid out until E & N have sold the next event for much more.
Ex. Clem-ND. I’ve seen it lower than 4M and higher than 9M so there is great potential for bonuses there.
Is Stanford somehow exempted from the ACC agreement with ND? Pitt and BC were mainstays on ND schedules, but suddenly could no longer play them annually because they had to “share” the Irish with their conference mates. Same standard should apply to Stanford.