Don't Sleep On How Big Notre Dame-BYU Will Be in 2026

The midseason matchup between Notre Dame and BYU won't get the same billing as the Miami showdown, but it's going to have massive implications.

Oct 8, 2022; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish safety DJ Brown (2) sacks Brigham Young Cougars quarterback Jaren Hall (3) during the first half at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Lucas Peltier-Imagn Images | Lucas Peltier-Imagn Images

No, it's not too early to get excited for Notre Dame's trip to BYU.

Yes, you read that correctly. Despite what some might lead you to believe, Miami's trip to Notre Dame with the inevitable "Catholics vs. Convicts" flashbacks won't be the only pivotal game on the Irish's 2026 slate.

That Notre Dame game will be BYU's Super Bowl

Let's back up for a second. Nobody is saying Notre Dame should permanently replace USC with BYU, even though that's the context of this matchup for 2026.

We're not about to pretend that one of college football's greatest rivalries being on pause is a minor development. It's major. It'll continue to be major as long as it's not being played.

Okay, that's out of the way, right?

Good. This replacement is ideal. The timing of the Week 7 matchup will make this a matchup of undefeated, top-10 teams.

That's right. When Notre Dame travels to Provo, Utah on Oct. 17, it won't surprise me if College GameDay is in the house to watch a pair of teams who are gearing up for Playoff runs.

(It's worth noting that it's the same day as Ohio State-Indiana in what'll be a highly anticipated Big Ten Championship rematch, but never assume anything with the Big Ten slate earning College GameDay appearances without that ESPN contract.)

Lost in the shuffle of that Brendan Sorsby news was that it might've just opened up a massive window for BYU to take control of the Big 12. Of course, Texas Tech was the only team who beat BYU last year. It put a damper on a 12-win season that ended with Kalani Sitake eating roughly 35 Pop Tarts.

pic.twitter.com/4Cd2i8lD8R

— no context college football (@nocontextcfb) December 28, 2025

Go figure that a season that ended with Pop Tarts also got a silver lining in the form of Crumbl Cookies after its co-founder and CEO, BYU donor Jason McGowan, "got off the sidelines" and rallied to keep Sitake from leaving for Penn State.

What a sentence. Welcome to college football in 2026.

As a result, BYU could have a huge role in telling the story of the season. Talk to enough coaches in the Big 12 and they'll tell you the same thing — BYU is the class of the conference in 2026.

Perhaps to diehards, that's not bold to say about a program that's riding its best two-year stretch since 1983-84, AKA the Ronald Reagan administration, though the casual college football fan might not realize that BYU has 23 wins the last two seasons.

The casual fans definitely aren't talking about a 12-win team being ranked No. 18 in percentage of returning production.

Yes, the Texas Tech hurdle still exists. What doesn't exist is a regular-season matchup against the Red Raiders. That regular-season headliner is instead Notre Dame.

I know what you're thinking.

When was the last time that BYU hosted a top-10 matchup in Provo, you ask? Never.

Let me repeat that for the folks at home who might've casually skimmed that line even though I put it in big, bold letters.

BYU has been playing organized tackle football since 1922, AKA the Warren G. Harding administration, and it has never hosted a top-10 matchup ("hosted" is a key word there because we know that it traveled to Texas Tech for a top-10 matchup last year).

Come Oct. 17, that changes.

What makes me so confident?

Well, besides the fact that Notre Dame ranks No. 1 in FBS in that aforementioned percentage of returning production stat, the Irish don't face a single Power Conference bowl team until that BYU matchup.

BYU, on the other hand, has a trickier path with three pre-Notre Dame matchups vs. Power Conference teams who won eight games and had a winning record in Big 12 play. The good news for Sitake's squad is that two of those games are at home and the one that isn't will be against TCU, who BYU beat 44-13 last year.

Make of that what you will. I make of it that it's not crazy to think that BYU's path to 5-0 is extremely favorable.

This might look like a "sleeper" matchup in the preseason for Notre Dame knowing that the Miami matchup looms three weeks later, and a 7-2 series history with a lone matchup in the Playoff era won't sell it as some storied rivalry. But that notion will fade in September.

It's not too early to change that.