Look ahead: Who does Notre Dame football face on its 2025 schedule?

Posted by Admin January 19, 2025 Football

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ATLANTA — Coming off its first appearance in the national championship game in 12 years, independent Notre Dame football faces an “unbelievably great” schedule in 2025, according to first-year athletic director Pete Bevacqua.

It includes two teams ranked in the most recent College Football Playoff committee deliberation: No. 9 Boise State at home on Oct. 4 and No. 13 Miami on the road on Labor Day weekend.

Star running back Ashton Jeanty (Boise State) and quarterback Cam Ward (Miami) are headed to the NFL after exhausting their eligibility.

A 12th regular-season opponent remains to be scheduled, but the rest of the current road schedule next fall includes Arkansas (Sept. 27), Pittsburgh (TBD) and Boston College (TBD).

In addition to its first-ever meeting with the Broncos, who won the Mountain West Conference and claimed the No. 3 seed in the 12-team CFP, Notre Dame will play host to Texas A&M (Sept. 13), Purdue (Sept. 20), USC (Oct. 18), Navy (Nov. 8), N.C. State (TBD) and Syracuse (TBD).

A trip to Stanford would make the most sense; that’s where the Irish typically close out the regular season in years when rival USC visits South Bend.

Stanford, California-Berkeley and CFP qualifier SMU joined the Atlantic Coast Conference for the 2024 season. A handful of ACC teams have played Notre Dame in an annual rotation since a scheduling partnership was forged with the 2014 season.

“It’s always been Notre Dame’s style to play the best teams available,” Bevacqua, the former NBC Sports executive, said at Saturday’s media day. “Now, you can’t play Murderer’s Row every year, but you never know what you’re going to get. … We’ll continue to schedule as aggressively as we can.

Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.