Florida State’s in South Bend today, and the atmosphere is not what we expected. Preseason, this was supposed to be Notre Dame’s marquee game, a top-ten opportunity and possibly the most difficult challenge on the schedule. Instead, the Seminoles are 1–8, and Notre Dame’s favored by nearly four touchdowns.
Notre Dame’s schedules are a frequent source of hand-wringing among Notre Dame folks and outsiders alike. They’re an easy target. Notre Dame is the only team in the country with a schedule like Notre Dame’s. But we don’t need to wring hands. The schedules are less dangerous than they were in the four-team era. For the last ten years, there was an art to threading the needle, a trick to scheduling good enough teams to establish credibility without setting oneself up for a loss. One of the great gifts of the twelve-team playoff is that it liberates us to have some fun.
So, games to look forward to, since this one turned out disappointing:
Road Games
Notable novelties currently on the schedule (per FBSchedules, which does great work in this space, the USC series is scheduled through 2026):
- 2025: Miami, Arkansas
- 2026: Florida State
- 2027: Michigan State, Clemson
- 2028: Virginia Tech
- 2029: Texas?
- 2030: Alabama
- 2031: Indiana
- 2032: Florida
- 2033: Michigan
I’ve cut off after 2033, and I’ve made some very subjective calls on what to include. Clemson and Florida State still seem special, but not every time, and we don’t know how they or any other program will hold up over the coming years. The 2018 game in Blacksburg was my favorite road experience ever, but Virginia Tech might not be “back” when it rolls around. Michigan State isn’t good right now, but they could be by 2027, and even if they aren’t, it’ll be fun to go back to East Lansing.
Using my own judgment here and basing this off my own experiences (I’ve never been to a game at FSU or Clemson), I’d ideally hope to make it to the games in Fayetteville, Tallahassee, East Lansing, Blacksburg, Tuscalooosa, Clemson (maybe in 2031, where I’ve left it off), and Gainesville, if crafting some idealized itinerary of my own. Blacksburg’s worth visiting twice. Ann Arbor isn’t. I live in Austin. (It’s a great game experience here, but Texas needs to work on its gameday experience, and I’d guess that it will soon.)
Neutral-Site Games
There’s only one of these, but it’s awesome:
- 2026: Wisconsin at Lambeau Field
This could be the best day of all of our lives.
Home Games
The big ones, again acknowledging the USC series is currently scheduled through 2026:
- 2025: Texas A&M, Boise State
- 2026: Michigan State, Miami
- 2027: (null)
- 2028: Arkansas, Texas?
- 2029: Alabama
- 2030: Indiana
- 2031: Florida
- 2032: (null)
- 2033: (null)
- 2034: Michigan
(There are question marks next to Texas here and in the “Road Games” space because the years have been reported but not confirmed, and who’d host when hasn’t even been reported.)
The games I’ve included on this list are games where I’d imagine the opposing teams’ fans will be fired up to come to South Bend. That’s a special thing about Notre Dame—people are excited to travel to play us. It’ll be different with Michigan State and Indiana, as those are blood feuds, at least of a sort. The relationship with Miami isn’t exactly friendly either. But like the day Tommy Rees beat Utah, 14 years ago this coming week, these should be good chances to see people come see us. I’m imagining Texas A&M, Boise State, Arkansas, Texas, Alabama, and Florida will be particularly good vibes days.
Looking at all of this: Is there work to do filling in gaps? Probably. But the whole “Notre Dame needs a marquee home game” narrative is overblown. Hopefully, USC comes in 2027 and it’s a moot point. If they don’t, hopefully Notre Dame finds another opponent like Boise State or Utah—a good, fun program with a big fanbase. We do need at least two more home games that year, so I suppose it’s a year to watch.
The broader point here is that there’s good stuff coming down the pipe, at home and on the road and at Lambeau Field. As the Texas developments are showing, there’s more good stuff being added. Sure, Florida State sucks. Maybe some of these teams will suck as well. But there is/are plenty of novelty and potential travel and potential homecomings ahead. College football finds a way.
How Bad Does Florida State Suck?
Speaking of Florida State sucking: Are we gonna be ok today? This has turned into a Marshall/Stanford/NIU matchup. It’s in that category. Coming off the off week, will we be rusty?
The concern with Florida State is that the talent is still mostly there. The talent isn’t amazing—we grade out better in the Talent Composite, and we aren’t exactly loaded with five-stars—but the Seminoles are kind of like a sick rattlesnake. You need to handle them differently than a sick bunny.
That said: Florida State has only cracked twenty points once this year, and they have yet to do it in North America. Their defense is respectable, but it’s waned of late, getting torched by SMU, Miami, and North Carolina, only two of which are graded by SP+ as better offensively than the Irish.
This is a game like the Marshall and Stanford and NIU games, and those have been a bizarre headache. But the way to approach them is similar to how we approached Purdue and Navy: Jump on them. Beat them with the starters. Don’t worry about the second string until it’s time to worry about the second string.
Notre Dame should be fine today. Yes, it’s a rattlesnake. But the rattlesnake is very, very sick.
The only thing I’ll add here: Stop worrying about Notre Dame somehow missing the playoff if Notre Dame wins out. It’s not going to happen. The number of things that would have to break perfectly is enormous. Maybe there’s a path to debacle, all four of BYU/Iowa State/Miami/SMU 12–1 with continued SEC parity up top, but as long as Notre Dame keeps winning, Notre Dame will be absolutely fine and will probably get a home game. Take care of business. Don’t worry about watching scoreboards. We don’t even know yet which seed between sixth and eighth would be the most advantageous. (If you’re going to scoreboard-watch, try to find a way to get us up to fifth.)
Micah Shrewsberry’s Basketball Team Is 1–0
Not a lot to mention from the win over Stonehill. Markus Burton’s inefficiency wasn’t as bad as it might have appeared, especially when you factor in the five assists and how few turnovers he had despite the sky-high usage rate. It was great to see Braeden Shrewsberry come out of the gate shooting well after he started last year so poorly. The early indication is that Sir Mohammed is the only freshman who’ll get significant run. Matt Allocco was fittingly perfect from the floor. Tae Davis had some big hustle plays, and Kebba Njie looked more comfortable down low than I’d say he looked last year.
The only big observation I’d offer is that this team isn’t as young as I, at least, tend to think of it. It’s young, and there’s more youth coming, but we aren’t starting any freshmen this year, and we’ve got three upperclassmen in the lineup, plus Roper and the K-Boys and maybe Burke Chebuhar off the bench. It’s a deep team, and Shrewsberry used the transfer portal to accessorize, and it’s doubtful we’ll be great but those bubble aspirations aren’t unreasonable. One more tuneup Monday before a big one next weekend at Georgetown.
Go Irish.
