The Notre Dame opponent bye week scheduling quirk is absent in 2023
A frequent scheduling quirk that elicits widespread grumbling from Notre Dame fans is on a bye in 2023. None of the six ACC teams are off the week before they play the Irish, as revealed when the conference released its full schedule Monday night.
The total number of Notre Dame 2023 opponents on bye the week before the game is also zero, technically. Tennessee State’s Sept. 2 trip to Notre Dame is its first game of the season, but it’s the second for the Irish, who play Navy in Dublin one week earlier.
Notre Dame’s games against North Carolina State (Sept. 9, road), Central Michigan (Sept. 16, home), Ohio State (Sept. 23, home), Duke (Sept. 30, road), Louisville (Oct. 7, road), USC (Oct. 14, home), Pittsburgh (Oct. 28, home), Clemson (Nov. 4, road), Wake Forest (Nov. 18, home) and Stanford (road, Nov. 25) follow another contest for the opponent. The Irish are off before playing Pitt and Wake Forest.
Notre Dame is used to seeing opponents coming off a bye week. The Irish played 36 such games from 2010-22, the most among Power Five teams. The ACC, which began its scheduling agreement with Notre Dame in 2014, is responsible for many of those.
Two of the four ACC teams the Irish played in 2022 were off the week before (North Carolina and Clemson). Three of the five they faced in 2021 had a bye one week prior, not including Florida State, which was the opener that year. Wisconsin, Cincinnati and USC were also off before they played Notre Dame.
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The bye-week scheduling pattern has only been a source of offseason consternation, though. All told, it has made little discernible impact on Notre Dame’s results in those games. The Irish are 29-7 in those 36 contests against opponents that play them after an open weekend. They have won 28 straight regular season games against ACC teams, with the last loss a 41-8 defeat at Miami on Nov. 11, 2017. The Hurricanes were not off the week before.
The Irish went 2-0 against rested opponents in 2022 and 5-1 in 2021. Their last loss against a team coming off a bye was Oct. 2, 2021 versus Cincinnati at home.
