Skip to main content
notre-dame logo

Newsstand: ESPN names season-defining game on Notre Dame 2025 schedule

IMG_7504by:Jack Soble•02/19/25•

jacksoble56

alma
Notre Dame celebrates by signing the alma mater at Texas A&M. (Photo by Chad Weaver)

This week, ESPN published a list of make-or-break games for each team in its way-too-early top 25. Notre Dame’s is exactly what it was in 2024, at least until a shocking loss to Northern Illinois threw a wrench into the season.

The season-defining game for the Irish, is Week 3 (Sept. 13) vs. Texas A&M. The logic is that after two games — at Miami and vs. Texas A&M — we should have a pretty good idea of who this Irish team is.

“A not-so bold prediction: Notre Dame will have a much tougher time surviving an early-season loss in 2025,” ESPN senior college football writer Adam Rittenberg said. “Why? The Irish’s schedule is front-loaded with several tough opponents, and Notre Dame could fall out of the playoff race before things soften up during the second half. Notre Dame will have a good idea of its CFP position after its first two games, at Miami and the home opener against Texas A&M.”

Rittenberg did not want to put too much stock in a Week 1 game — although it would have been justified last season given the weakness of the rest of the schedule — so he went with Week 3 vs. the Aggies after a Week 2 bye.

If the Irish lose at Miami, Rittenberg wrote, they’ll be fighting for their lives against Texas A&M. If they travel to Miami Gardens, Fla. and win, they’ll all but punch their ticket to the College Football Playoff (assuming they learned their lesson from last season) in mid-September.

“Notre Dame will have a sense of how its new quarterback performs at Miami, and how the defense is faring under new coordinator Chris Ash,” Rittenberg said. “The Irish will either enter the Texas A&M game in desperation mode or with a chance to establish the nation’s best two-week profile and validate themselves as CFP title contenders again.”

Notre Dame Tweets of the day

Notre Dame continues to run the ACC in men’s lacrosse.

It’s official: The Irish made a home-run hire at running backs coach.

Niele Ivey: Fighting Irish legend.

Quote of the day

“It’s challenging because they’ve all been lead dogs at some point in their college career. Their fourth and fifth and sixth option is a first-team, all-conference player. … They’re the only team in the league like that.”

— Duke head women’s basketball coach Kara Lawson on Notre Dame

Headlines of the day

You may also like