Notre Dame’s 2026 football schedule sheds Florida State, clarifies home-game math

Notre Dame’s 2026 football schedule still lives largely in the hypothetical — with 10 apparent regular-season opponents, lots of TBAs and a few concrete dates leading to some confusing math when it comes to home games.

As in a trajectory that might lead to just five of them next season?

Math problem solved. A source confirmed to Blue & Gold on Friday that the 2026 road game at Florida State won’t happen. That game was part of Notre Dame’s annual commitment to play an average of five ACC teams, a template that has been altered from time to time to four or six ACC opponents in a given season to accommodate other Irish scheduling commitments.

Florida State being off the books is not a new development, according to the source, and had been in the works for some time. FSU, though, only recently removed the game from its athletic website. A Florida State source confirmed the date had been scratched years ago, and that the next scheduled meeting was in the 2029 season in Tallahassee., Fla.

The four remaining ACC games are road matchups at North Carolina and Syracuse, and home games against SMU and Miami. The Miami game was originally scheduled for 2024, but was moved to accommodate a scheduling logjam for the Hurricanes.

Six of the remaining nine games have firm dates and venues, according to unofficial scheduling websites, and beginning with the Sept. 6 season opener against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. That is a Shamrock Series game, technically an Irish home game from a TV rights standpoint but played offsite. Notre Dame took a break from the Shamrock Series concept this season and is playing seven games at Notre Dame Stadium.

Typically, it’s a 6-5-1 configuration, and the movement of the Florida State game from the 2026 schedule eases that eventuality, especially if Notre Dame is successful in extending its longtime series with USC.

That game would take place in Los Angeles or at a neutral site as a USC home game if the details can be worked out, with the Trojans back in South Bend in 2027.

Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua has also expressed a desire to continue to play Stanford under certain conditions. And if those details would be worked out for 2026, the rotation for that game could be at Notre Dame Stadium next season.

The Irish are scheduled to play September home games on the 12th and 19th, respectively, against Rice and Michigan State. Notre Dame has a Sept. 26 matchup slated for Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind., and a game against Navy on Oct. 31 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

Notre Dame and Florida State have met 12 times with the series tied at 6-6. The Irish thumped the Seminoles, 52-3, last November. The last game played between the two in Tallahassee, Fla., was a 41-38 Irish overtime win in the 2021 season opener.

With the ACC and SEC now committed to nine-game conference schedules in future seasons, up from eight a year, there may be more adjustments to future Irish schedules to come, but this change had nothing to do with that development.