Four Notre Dame games make Lindy’s Sports list of best non-conference matchups

Marcus Freeman needs no reminding of the narratives that will be swirling around Notre Dame’s Week 1 game at Ohio State. They write themselves.

The game is his return to Ohio Stadium, where he played as a Buckeyes linebacker from 2004-08. It’s a matchup against his alma mater to begin his debut season as a head coach. He’s aware the homecoming might have a spicier feel after his May comments about academics in a CBS Sports story seemed to stick in Ohio State fans’ craws. Surely, a few College GameDay signs from the home crowd will take aim at him.

Freeman will allow it — barely.

“I know a lot of it will be made about me going back to my alma mater,” Freeman said, “but that’s not what it’s about.”

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To him, it’s two blue-blood teams opening the season at an iconic venue in their first on-campus meeting since 1996. It’s two College Football Playoff hopefuls angling to make an early statement about their candidacy. It’s a chance for Notre Dame to learn about itself and face perhaps the most talented roster on its schedule right away.

He can, though, acknowledge it makes for a non-conference game as compelling as any other in college football this year. Well, almost any, according to Lindy’s Sports preseason magazine. Lindy’s ranked the 12 best 2022 out-of-conference contests and put it at No. 2, behind only Alabama at Texas on Sept. 10. Four games involving the Irish are ranked in the top nine, starting with the Sept. 3 trip to Ohio State.

“The first big game for the Irish under Marcus Freeman as the Buckeyes try to launch a title run and C.J. Stroud’s Heisman Trophy run at the same time,” Lindy’s preview reads.

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Both teams will likely be ranked in the top 10 of the preseason Associated Press poll. Ohio State is a lock to make the top five. If offseason top 25 rankings are any indication, Notre Dame wedging its way in there too feels unlikely but not impossible. The Irish have appeared in the top 10 of most and top five of a couple. Lindy’s ranked the Irish No. 6.

Naturally, there will be ample talent on the field.

Stroud threw for 4,435 yards, 44 touchdowns and six interceptions and was a Heisman finalist last year. Ohio State’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba led the Power Five with 1,606 receiving yards. Notre Dame’s Michael Mayer is widely viewed as the top tight end prospect in the 2023 NFL Draft. Ohio State sophomore defensive ends and former top-five overall recruits J.T. Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer will match up with Irish tackles Joe Alt and Blake Fisher, who earned starting jobs as freshmen last year.

Ohio State is the first preseason top-10 team on Notre Dame’s schedule. It’s unlikely to be the last. Clemson, which has also populated several offseason top 10s, visits Notre Dame Stadium on Nov. 5 for Lindy’s No. 4-ranked non-conference game. They met twice in 2020, first a 47-40 double-overtime Irish home win over the then-No. 1 Tigers followed by a 34-10 Clemson victory in the ACC Championship Game.

Notre Dame closes the season at USC, which has distanced itself from a wayward 4-8 season last year by pilfering head coach Lincoln Riley and star sophomore quarterback Caleb Williams from Oklahoma. The Trojans raided the transfer portal and resemble a Pac-12 contender. Even if they fall short of that in Year 1, their makeover has brought a famous rivalry into a needed new era. That alone was enough for Lindy’s to dub the Nov. 26 meeting in Los Angeles the seventh-best non-conference game of 2022.

“It’s a new chapter of a college football tradition: First-year coaches Marcus Freeman and Lincoln Riley match wits in what both sides hope becomes a top 10 (or better) annual date,” Lindy’s preview reads.

Lindy’s also ranked the Oct. 8 Notre Dame vs. BYU game in Las Vegas as the ninth-best non-conference game. If a fourth Notre Dame opponent joins Ohio State, Clemson and USC in the preseason AP poll, it’s most likely to be the Cougars (21-4 the last two seasons). Lindy’s slotted them No. 19 in its top 25.

“This is the 11th edition of Notre Dame’s home-away-from-home ‘Shamrock Series’ of games played around the country since 2009 (eighth different stadium) and the Fighting Irish have yet to lose,” Lindy’s preview reads. “In Las Vegas, this is going to be a pricey ticket.”