Notre Dame's 2026 Schedule Sets Irish Up For Success

The last two Notre Dame seasons have started off with a bang!

In 2024, the Irish opened up the year at Texas A&M at night. In 2025, Notre Dame opened up at Miami at night with the second game being against a very athletic Texas A&M squad. While these matchups were thrilling and created some serious heat in August heading into the season, games like this come with huge risk.

Nothing takes momentum away from a long season of football like losing a game or two early in the season, which is exactly how the Irish started the 2025 campaign. The 2026 schedule, however, allows the Irish some breathing room early in the season that should set the team up for a really strong year.

Notre Dame will play with a healthy margin of error available to start 2026

One of the calculations I make in my head before each Notre Dame game is what I call "margin of error in victory". What I mean by this is how perfect and how clean I think the Irish must play to win the game. Against Miami and Texas A&M to start 2025, this margin was tiny.

I, you, and Notre Dame knew it would have to play very clean, efficient football to win with very little room for mistakes or missed opportunities.

Unfortunately, with a first- time starting quarterback and a new defensive coordinator, Notre Dame made just enough mistakes in the first two games to fall to 0-2 right out of the gate.

To Notre Dame's credit, it did go on to win its final 10 games in a row, which was impressive, but not impressive enough to make the CFP field.

Unlike 2024-2025, Notre Dame's 2026 schedule offers some healthy breathing room to get off to a good start and gain momentum. By no means do I mean to denigrate Notre Dame's opponents, but Wisconsin, Rice, Michigan State, Purdue, North Carolina, and Stanford are not Miami and Texas A&M.

The Irish should be playing in these early games with some wiggle room to be able to not play near perfect and still win. This runway of momentum sets the Irish up to be firing on all cylinders, full of confidence heading into the meat of the schedule against BYU and Miami.

The 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣6️⃣ Notre Dame Football schedule is here ☘️

🔗 https://t.co/2hJkcm0uz4 #GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/vF2fjKnJTK
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) January 23, 2026

The downside to this Notre Dame schedule

While I just highlighted how big an advantage I think this schedule is compared to the last two, this is only the case if Notre Dame wins the games and doesn't slip up along the way.

If Notre Dame's 10-2 record wasn't playoff-worthy last season, the same record definitely won't be in 2026. Therein lies the double-edged sword of having an "easy" schedule.

If Notre Dame takes care of business, this schedule should provide a ramp to the playoff. That being said, one let-down game against a lesser opponent, combined with a loss against, say, Miami, and the Irish are on the outside looking in at the CFP, again.

Notre Dame's scheduling has always been controversial and complicated due to Independence. This project is part negotiation, part practical logistics, and part art.

There is no perfect equation, and each year presents its own feel and vibe. As for 2026, this schedule is begging to be taken full advantage of by an Irish program with a point to prove.