Notre Dame and the Ever-Feared 'Week After Navy'

Notre Dame football will close the October portion of its 2026 schedule on Halloween against Navy as the two old rivals are set to meet at the home of the New England Patriots in Foxboro, Mass.

We now have a kickoff time for that game and perhaps the good news for Notre Dame is that they should be back home nearly in time to spend Halloween night having a good time.

Notre Dame vs. Navy Kickoff Time Announced

Notre Dame and Navy will kickoff at Noon ET on October 31 this year in a game that will air on either ESPN or ABC.

Schedule update 📆

Our game vs. Navy will kick off at 12 PM ET on ABC or ESPN.#GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/yxYYywaxTZ
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) May 27, 2026

This will be the third-straight time in the series that the game will be a Noon ET kickoff when Navy has been the designated home team.

Notre Dame's Recent Dominance Over Navy

While Navy gave Notre Dame more fits from 2007 through 2016 than it did in the roughly 80 years combined previous, the Fighting Irish have had the upper hand again in a big way of late.

Notre Dame has won eight straight games in the series to take an 82-13-1 overall advantage all-time.

Trap game, perhaps this is not.

Notre Dame has dominated the last three meetings to the tune of outscoring Navy 142-27 in those years. Say what you want about it being Navy, but its a program that has combined to go a combined 21-5 over the last two seasons, and one that beat Oklahoma in a bowl game to close 2024.

The One Hiccup About Navy Date for Notre Dame in 2026

There was a time in college football when there was a real impact of playing a game against Navy.

It was about a decade ago and it often times meant that the next week was going to be incredibly difficult for whoever was coming off a game against the Midshipmen.

Nowhere was this moreso the case than in 2014 when mighty Ohio State opened the year with a 34-17 victory over Navy in Columbus.

One week later, however, Ohio State was knocked from its No. 8 ranking when unranked Virginia Tech walked into the Horseshoe and took home a 35-21 win over the Buckeyes.

Ohio State would rebound in a big way, winning 13-straight games to close the year and finish with the first national championship of the College Football Playoff era.

In Notre Dame's case, the Fighting Irish went just 4-7 the week following the Navy game from 2007 to 2017.

Anonymous Coaches Preview 2026 Notre Dame Football

For whatever its worth, though, Notre Dame has seemingly changed that history. Since 2018, Notre Dame is 6-0 in games played the weekend following the matchup against Navy with only the 2018 game at Northwestern being decided by 10 or fewer points (31-21 win).

That's a good sign as Notre Dame's biggest game of the year, home against Miami, comes a week after playing Navy this fall.

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