On Monday evening, the ACC Network’s schedule release show revealed Stanford as the 12th and final Notre Dame football opponent of the 2025 regular season. The next 12 Irish opponents posted a combined record of 88-67 this past season.
Notre Dame will open the season on Sunday, Aug. 31 in primetime against Miami (Florida). This will mark the fourth time in the last decade that the Irish have played their Week One game on a non-Saturday, as they faced Texas in 2016 and Florida State in 2021 on Sundays while traveling to Louisville in 2019 on a Monday night. Notre Dame hasn’t faced the Hurricanes since 2017, when Miami unleashed a 41-8 destruction of the playoff-hopeful Irish.
The Hurricanes narrowly missed a College Football Playoff spot in 2024, going 10-3 with a shootout loss in the Pop Tarts Bowl. They’ve replaced Heisman-nominated quarterback Cam Ward with Carson Beck, but star receiver Xavier Restrepo and leading tackler Francisco Mauigoa still leave voids to fill. However, Miami has addressed its problematic secondary in the transfer portal and should have a spot in the top 25 to start next season.
After a rare Sept. 6 bye week, the Irish will play what should be a night game home opener against Texas A&M on Sept. 13. Notre Dame opened the 2024 season with a 23-13 defeat of the Aggies in primetime at Kyle Field and has not hosted Texas A&M since 2000.
Despite their early loss to the Irish, the Aggies jumped out to a 7-1 start before stumbling down the stretch to an 8-5 record and a Las Vegas Bowl loss. Expect more consistency out of Texas A&M, especially on offense, heading into the 2025 season. However, if the Aggies can’t fix their gaping holes on the defensive line and Notre Dame has its offense clicking, this game might not be all that close.
On Sept. 20, the Irish will welcome to South Bend a Purdue team that went 1-11 in 2024. The Irish and Boilermakers will continue to play yearly through at least the 2028 season after Notre Dame won 66-7 in West Lafayette last September. This offseason, the bad has gone to worse for the Boilermakers, who have lost top tight end Max Klare and leading tackler Dillon Thieneman in the portal.
Sept. 27 will take the Irish into SEC country for a duel with Arkansas in Fayetteville. Notre Dame has never faced the Razorbacks, who went 7-6 with a home upset of Tennessee and a Liberty Bowl win in 2024. The Hogs will lose plenty of talent on both sides of the ball but expect to return mobile quarterback Taylen Green and their notable linebacker duo of Xavian Sorey Jr. and Stephen Dix Jr.
The gauntlet of a first-half schedule will continue when the Irish host Mountain West champion and CFP qualifier Boise State for another program first on Oct. 4. The Broncos will have lost generational running back Ashton Jeanty but bring back enough talent to hold a national ranking once again. Quarterback Maddux Madsen will return along with four starters on the offensive line, top-tackling safety Ty Benefield and sack leader Jayden Virgin-Morgan.
Notre Dame will continue its homestand against an NC State team that went 6-7 on Oct. 11. The Irish visited the Wolfpack two Septembers ago and last met them in South Bend in 2017. NC State doesn’t have much returning on defense, but freshman quarterback CJ Bailey should be back along with several viable options in the running back and wide receiver rooms.
Before an end-of-October bye week, the Irish will host USC on Oct. 18 for what ought to be Notre Dame Stadium’s second night game of the season. The Trojans disappointed massively in 2024, going 7-6 with a 49-35 home loss to the Irish before coming back to steak the Las Vegas Bowl from Texas A&M. Overall, Notre Dame has won six of the last seven matchups against its rival from Los Angeles.
With early-season quarterback Miller Moss off to Louisville in the portal, Jayden Maiava will enter his first full year leading the Trojan offense in 2025. Despite the losses of wide receivers Zachariah Branch, Kyron Hudson and Duce Robinson in the portal, USC returns its top two pass-catchers in Ja’Kobi Lane and Makai Lemon while bringing in Prince Strachan from Boise State. With continued development from Maiava, the Trojans are positioned to take a step forward on offense, particularly through the air.
Notre Dame will head to Chestnut Hill for a date with Boston College on the first of November. The Irish shut out the Eagles on Senior Day in 2022 and recently made successful trips to Massachusetts in 2020 and 2017. Boston College, which went 7-6 and lost the Pinstripe Bowl in 2024, has a major loss to contend with on both sides of the ball. Starting quarterback Thomas Castellanos transferred to Florida State, while 16.5-sack producer Donovan Ezeiruaku is off to the National Football League.
A week later, Navy will head back to South Bend for the first time since 2021. The Midshipmen initially turned a lot of heads this season before taking one on the chin against the Irish at MetLife Stadium in late October. Nevertheless, they finished 10-3 with a win in the Armed Forces Bowl against Oklahoma State and expect to return their entire offensive big three of quarterback Blake Horvath, fullback Alex Tecza and running back Eli Heidenreich.
The second of four Notre Dame ACC games in November will take the Irish to the Steel City on Nov. 15. Like Texas A&M, Pittsburgh marched out to a great start at 7-0 before collapsing with six straight losses to end 2024. The Panthers still have a question mark at quarterback with rising sophomore Eli Holstein, but they’ve got running back Desmond Reid, who produced more than 1,500 scrimmage yards this season, to help him out. No. 2 wide receiver Kenny Johnson also returns along with the excellent linebacker trio of Kyle Louis, Rasheem Biles and Braylan Lovelace. They’ll be looking to help Pitt avenge a 58-7 loss to the Irish in October 2023.
Senior Day will pit the Irish against the up-and-coming Syracuse Orange on Nov. 22. Syracuse went 10-3 in 2024, finishing 20th in the AP Poll after upsetting Miami to spoil its CFP run and downing Washington State in the Holiday Bowl. The Orange will lose quarterback Kyle McCord, whose post-Ohio State resurgence sparked Syracuse this year, along with 1,000-yard rusher LeQuint Allen and 900-yard tight end Oronde Gadsden II, so expect a step back from an offense that just averaged 34.1 points per game. The Irish last faced Syracuse in 2022, winning 41-24 in the JMA Wireless Dome.
Notre Dame will continue its tradition of closing the regular season in California with a trip to Stanford on Nov. 29. The Cardinal went 3-9 with a 49-7 loss to the Irish in 2024 and figure to have a hard time putting up many more points than that in 2025. Quarterback Ashton Daniels, the team’s leading passer and rusher is gone along with leading receiver Elic Ayomanor.
