Three Things Setting Notre Dame Up for an Elite 2026 Season

There's no doubt that Notre Dame's 2025 CFP snub is going to sting for a long time for the Notre Dame extended family. In life, time heals all wounds.

In football, wins heal all wounds. That's what 2026 is all about for the Irish. Winning enough games that the CFP committee can't pull a sneaky late maneuver to cost Notre Dame a bid, and sticking it to each and every person who doubts the Irish belong with the elites along the way.

Why Notre Dame Is Positioned to Be Elite in 2026

Notre Dame is set up for success in ways that simply weren't possible in 2025. Let's examine the three biggest examples of this in detail.

Notre Dame's 2026 schedule is not tough

Notre Dame's 2026 schedule sets up for success. As things stand now, with the loss of USC on the schedule, the Irish play two "big" games. At BYU on a date to be named later and hosting Miami in November. This is supremely manageable.

Unless the BYU game gets placed in week 0, Notre Dame should be able to ease into the season with a much wider margin of error than it began 2025, facing Miami and Texas A&M.

Opening with Wisconsin, Rice, Michigan State, Purdue, and North Carolina should allow for some real momentum to be built as the Irish hit the middle part of the season. This is the opposite of what happened in 2025 and should aid Notre Dame as the 2026 team finds itself.

Notre Dame has a returning starting QB in CJ Carr

For the first time since Ian Book in 2020, Notre Dame has a returning QB1 in CJ Carr. This is a massive positive for the Irish. There will be no quarterback controversy, no drama, no splitting reps with the ones. CJ Carr is the quarterback and leader, and everyone knows that.

This stability is healthy for a program. It also allows Notre Dame to completely focus on building the offense specifically to best suit each of CJ's strengths and weaknesses. The Irish offense will start out 2026 light-years ahead of where 2025's group did because of this factor alone. This is a recipe for success.

CJ Carr is a cerebral and accurate QB prospect who is ahead of the development curve, much like Julian Sayin and CJ Bailey

2027 QB class will be very fun! pic.twitter.com/H612dFYiVm
— NFL Draft Files (@NFL_DF) November 7, 2025

Year Two of the Chris Ash defense should be elite

Aside from the benefit of a returning quarterback, Notre Dame will also be entering year two of a new defensive coordinator.

It took Chris Ash a few games to properly learn his personnel and what it could do or not do on the field. Unfortunately, this calibration period massively contributed to a 0-2 start that ultimately ended up dooming the season.

2026 will be very different. Ash will have an athletic and fast defense that he is intimately familiar with. This group should be elite in 2026 for the entire year, not most of it.

Combining this with the quarterback continuity and a favorable schedule, title or bust will be a fair grading scale. Let the 2026 Irish revenge tour commence!