How, When to Watch Stanford vs. Notre Dame

A big game against Cal looms for Stanford football, but the season finale against Notre Dame will be another game to circle on the Cardinal's calendar. Earlier this week, the kickoff time and TV channel for Stanford's season finale against Notre Dame was revealed, putting the Cardinal on the field later at night to cap off the '25 campaign.

Set to take on the Fighting Irish at 7:30 p.m. (PST) at Stanford Stadium, this game will be the latest kickoff for Stanford since Oct. 18 when they took on Florida State at home at 7:30 p.m. This matchup will be the 39th all-time meeting between the two schools, and will have very different stakes for each program.

Stanford, essentially out of the running for a bowl game, will look to win to give themselves major momentum heading into the offseason, and should be announcing their new long-term head coach shortly after the game. Notre Dame, on the other hand, is fighting for a spot in the College Football Playoff, making each and every win more meaningful than ever.

A loss to Stanford would be a huge blow to Notre Dame's goals.

Despite neither school being in the same conference, with Stanford starting out in the Pac-12 before moving to the ACC and Notre Dame being independent in football, these two schools have one of the deepest rivalries in all of college football.

First meeting in 1925, with Stanford losing 27-10, Notre Dame leads the all-time series 23-14, earning their largest victory over Stanford in 2003, winning 57-7. Stanford's longest losing streak against Notre Dame was seven, spanning from 2002-08, while it is currently on a two-game losing streak, last beating the Fighting Irish 16-14 on the road in 2022.

Last year's game saw Stanford struggle to compete, losing 49-7 on the road to the then No. 11 ranked Notre Dame. This was a team that ended up making an appearance in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. The loss dropped Stanford to 2-4 on the season and was the third straight loss as part of a six-game losing streak.

In last year's game, Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard completed 16 out of his 22 passes for 229 yards and three touchdowns, also running the ball six times for 31 yards and a touchdown.

This game means a lot to Stanford in multiple ways. The final game of the season, the Cardinal could use this game as a way to set themselves up for a successful offseason, with a new head coach set to take over for interim head coach, Frank Reich.

Beating Notre Dame would give Stanford some swagger and the new coach some added confidence when taking over the Stanford rebuild. But a win also would give Stanford more wins this season than they have been able to pick up in any of the previous four seasons.

Notre Dame will go into this game as the heavy favorites, being that they're currently the No. 9 team in the country. While Stanford has struggled to pick up a win over ranked teams this season, the Cardinal will be hungry to defy the odds and prove everyone wrong to finish out the year.

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