Why Notre Dame Football Is Facing a Boring Problem

Notre Dame (2-2) gets set to host Boise State (3-1) this weekend in the first ever meeting between the two programs. Notre Dame is looking to overcome its 0-2 start to rally against all odds and end up in the College Football Playoff for the second season in a row, and fourth in program history.

Marcus Freeman's squad has a lot going for it the rest of the way: the defense that struggled the first three games, although far from perfect, was improved in Saturday's win at Arkansas.

Redshirt freshman quarterback CJ Carr looks like the real deal after hurling four touchdown passes this past weekend, is has been everything and more Notre Dame wanted him to be early in his first season as a starter.

And the remaining schedule is the opposite of the first two games that saw Notre Dame lose heartbreakers to both Miami (FL) and Texas A&M. It's loaded with a bunch of average teams, one Notre Dame should beat convincingly.

Notre Dame's Boring Problem

As Notre Dame looks to run off 10-straight wins and head back to the College Football Playoff, it'll be faced with one issue it has little ability to control. It shouldn't have any really exciting games remaining.

Yes, there is the USC tilt on October 18 in South Bend that is a matchup of big names, but after USC's showing at Illinois this past weekend, it's hard to look at the Trojans like they're anything great.

Notre Dame's Remaining Schedule

Notre Dame's eight remaining games go as follows:

October 4: vs. Boise State
October 11: vs. NC State
October 18: vs. USC
November 1: at Boston College
November 8: vs. Navy
November 15: at Pittsburgh
November 22: vs. Syracuse
November 29: at Stanford

If you think that feels a bit light, take it a step further with this: Of Notre Dame's eight remaining games, only the game against USC (67.5%) comes with a less than 88% chance of victory for the Fighting Irish according to ESPN's Football Power Index.

Sure, upsets happen and this is a team that has lost to Marshall, Stanford, and Northern Illinois in recent years and all that stuff, but this last two months of the 2025 schedule is dreadful.

Whoop up on Boise State this week? Awesome, so did South Florida already this year.

Beat up what could be a 10-plus win Navy team? Cool, did that multiple times before and got no credit for it.

Win at Pittsburgh? Yippee, a team that couldn't hold onto a 17-0 first quarter lead against Louisville this past weekend while playing at home.

Close the year by winning at Stanford? That would have been awesome...in 2015.

Blame USC for Weak Feeling Schedule

For as long as they've played each other, Notre Dame and USC have largely built their brands off of what one does to the other in the annual rivalry game.

From a historic context, Notre Dame and USC have very few that can touch it in terms of talent, national significance, and big-time feel.

From a recent context though, mainly since Pete Carroll ran away from pending sanctions and took his talents back to the NFL, USC has mostly been a big game in name only.

Not only has Notre Dame won six of the last seven in the series, it has won 10 of the last 14 since Carroll's exit. More troubling, and almost certainly it will be the case again this year, USC plays Notre Dame in either mid-October or late November without being ranked nationally.

What is supposed to be one of the biggest games annually for the Irish has turned into just another game in terms of resume building.

Is Notre Dame Doomed with Remaining Schedule?

Notre Dame's remaining schedule is boring and lacks a huge game that all the major conference teams will each have, most of them multiple of by season's end. However, Notre Dame has one thing going for it that can't be denied.

I did an interview with Chuck Oliver down in SEC country and he mentioned how life is easier if you're attractive, and that you can deny many things about Notre Dame football, but you can't deny it's attractiveness.

Like it or not, that goes into deciding who makes a College Football Playoff appearance. With as many games left to be played as there are, plenty of teams ahead of Notre Dame will fall and a 10-2 Fighting Irish team will almost certainly be primed to make the College Football Playoff.

But I can't help but think to myself that because of this sleepy schedule over the last two months, that barring something absolutely wild, Notre Dame's chances of hosting a home first round game are entirely gone.