SMU to play at Notre Dame football in 2026, per the ACC
A head-to-head between two programs with college football lore dating back decades will renew in 2026, according to a release from the Atlantic Coast Conference on Wednesday. The SMU Mustangs will head to South Bend to face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in two years on a specific date to be named later.
SMU is replacing Virginia on Notre Dame’s 2026 schedule to allow for the Cavaliers to set up a home-and-home with West Virginia. The news comes recently after learning the Irish will open the 2025 season at Miami and will have a home-and-home with Texas in 2028 and 2029.
The Mustangs and Irish have met on the football field 13 times before with Notre Dame owning a 10-3 record in the all-time series. The Irish won the last meeting, 59-6, in South Bend on Nov. 11, 1989. SMU last beat the Irish 27-20 in the 1984 Aloha Bowl in Hawaii four days after Christmas.
Notre Dame played SMU in seven of eight years between 1951 and 1958. The Irish went 5-2 in those matchups. This is a series that dates all the way back to Oct. 4, 1930, in the first game at Notre Dame Stadium. The Irish opened their new venue with a 20-14 victory.
All these years later, with nine claimed national championships, including one in 1930, plus two in 1924 and 1929 for Notre Dame and a string of double-digit-win seasons for SMU during the “Pony Express” era of the 1980s, the Irish and Mustangs will meet in what could be glorious eras for both sides.
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SMU is 8-1 and ranked No. 13. That’s after going 11-3 in the second year of Rhett Lashlee’s tenure in 2023. SMU has only won 11 or more games in a season three times including last year. Lashlee could get the program there in consecutive years, this being the first in the ACC after a decade in the American.
Marcus Freeman, meanwhile, will be in his fifth season at Notre Dame in 2026. He’s on pace to once again post a better record than he did the year before, as he did going from his first season to his second. Notre Dame is currently 7-1 and ranked No. 10 in the College Football Playoff poll after going 9-4 in 2022 and 10-3 in 2023.
Here’s a look at Notre Dame’s prospective schedule for 2026, which currently consists of a list of 10 opponents.
2026 Notre Dame football schedule
• 9/5: Wisconsin (Lambeau Field)
• 9/26: at Purdue
• 10/3: at North Carolina
• 10/31: at Navy
• 11/28: at USC
• TBA: Michigan State, Syracuse, Miami, at Florida State, SMU
