ACC announces SMU will play Notre Dame in 2026, Virginia has two-game series vs. West Virginia

SMU will play at Notre Dame in 2026, according to ACC schedule makers and a release from the team. The new conference member is a replacement for Virginia that season.

“The game will be played in South Bend, Indiana at Notre Dame Stadium. Specific game date and time will be determined at a later date,” the release read. “The Mustangs are playing the Fighting Irish in place of Virginia in order to allow the Cavaliers to agree to a two-game series with West Virginia. This will be the 14th match-up in the all-time series history, the first meeting since 1989.”

Of course, Notre Dame is still an Independent, so this will be an intriguing non-conference matchup. Now that SMU is playing Power Four football, it only increases the strength of schedule, at least when we project two years into the future.

Notre Dame usually has a knack of playing ACC and former Pac-12 schools. Add SMU to the list in the fall of 2026.

SMU is off and running this season, ranked No. 13 in the first College Football Playoff rankings this season.

For head coach Rhett Lashlee, he’s seen his team be ready for each challenge in ACC play. That’s paid off with its ranking and a 5-0 record in league play.

“Our team and our staff has done a really good job of literally being present and just working on chasing the standard that this team has set for ourselves each week,” Lashlee said after the 48-25 win over Pitt. “They did it tonight at a high level. The last time this happened, we went on the road and beat Louisville. It was a big win for our program.

“We had two weeks to sit, be told how great we were before we had to go to Stanford. It’s gonna be no different. Now we’re gonna have two weeks, we’ll see where we’re ranked whenever we know at the end of the day, to your point, we control our own destiny. And in two weeks, a team that’s pretty good, that beat us last year is coming in here.”