Notre Dame’s playoff hopes are heading into a crucial test as the Fighting Irish prepare to face an unbeaten Miami team. After missing the 12-team College Football Playoff last season, Marcus Freeman’s team now faces another opportunity to strengthen its case for a place in the field. And ESPN’s Paul Finebaum just heightened the stakes for them.
Notre Dame has replaced Purdue on its future schedules with a home-and-home series against Illinois for the 2027 and 2028 seasons, the schools announced Tuesday.
Notre Dame could find itself in the same College Football Playoff predicament that ended its 2025 season if it can’t beat No. 1 Miami on Saturday, according to ESPN College GameDay host Rece Davis.
Former Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Audric Estimé was released by the Cleveland Browns on Monday, ending a short stay on the active roster that began with a mid-October signing and included one memorable touchdown.
There are big games and then there are absolutely massive games and when No. 4 Notre Dame plays host to No. 1 Miami on Saturday night, it'll be the biggest the Fighting Irish have hosted in over 20 years.
It's very rare in a football season to have multiple chances to impress in the national spotlight game of the week with everything to gain, everything to lose, and everyone watching.
Since the moment it was announced last December that Miami passed Notre Dame in the final College Football Playoff rankings and that the Fighting Irish were being left out of the CFP, November 7, 2026, has been circled by anyone with a connection to Notre Dame football.
Notre Dame just gave college basketball fans an early reminder that this team isn’t going to go down without a fight. The Fighting Irish opened their 2026-27 season in spectacular fashion Sunday, rallying from a second-half deficit to defeat Villanova 74-72 at the Eternal City Tip-Off in Rome.
In a clash of Catholic Universities, it was No. 13 Notre Dame who got the best of Villanova, 99-75, from Italy on Sunday morning. This game was competitive through one quarter of play, but ND pulled away in the second quarter and never looked back.
The biggest week of the regular season is officially here for Notre Dame as the Fighting Irish get set to host Miami this Saturday. It's the biggest home game for the Fighting Irish since at least 2005, and a win would be the biggest by the program at Notre Dame Stadium since perhaps 1993.
So the Coaches Poll went Coaches Poll, threw out all critical thinking, and went chalk – team wins and moves up, team loses and moves down. But it all sets up for a whopper of an upcoming weekend.
In the end, Notre Dame did what it needed to do: collect a win over the uniquely pesky Midshipmen heading into the game of the year against Miami in South Bend this Saturday night.
College football never stays predictable for long, and that's part of what makes every Saturday so much fun.
Saturday was a story of two halves as Notre Dame had all of the issues that make playing Navy difficult until Nolan James, Jr. changed everything just before intermission in Foxborough.
The Notre Dame schedule is better than it gets credit for, the team is fantastic, and yet when it had the chance to flex its muscle and show just how good it was … (cue the sad trombone) womp, womp.
Even when Brian Kelly isn’t coaching football, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum can’t help but criticize the longtime football coach. Appearing on The Matt Barrie Show, Finebaum admonished Kelly for some recent comments he made about how Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian is responsible for star quarterback Arch Manning’s struggles this season.
It almost helped if you didn’t play this week after seven teams in the Coaches Poll Top 25 lost. Now it’s about how high Notre Dame climbs – if at all, after dropping like a rock from No.
The finish to the BYU vs. Notre Dame game was a wild one. Notre Dame had a shot to win the game late, but the Fighting Irish came up short, as their final pass for a game-winning touchdown was knocked to the ground as the clock expired in Provo.
Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr may need to practice his spiking. Carr committed one of the most absurd turnovers of the year Saturday against BYU at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo, Utah.
This weekend marks college football's Week 7 matchups, and it brings all the excitement you'd expect from a slate of games as we head into the latter part of the season.
Notre Dame isn't just visiting an undefeated No. 8-ranked BYU Cougars team; it's walking into a proving ground.
Have you heard that Saturday's showdown between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the BYU Cougars is a big deal?
The No. 2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish have a massive game coming up in Week 7 against the No. 8-ranked BYU Cougars.
College football's Week 6 is in the books, and what a week it was.
Each week, Yardbarker spotlights college football stars, some of whom will be playing on NFL Sundays. With that in mind, here are five Week 5 standouts.
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