SMU faces tough road schedule for 2026 season with Notre Dame addition
SMU isn’t afraid to play just about anyone and the Mustangs did the ACC a favor adding Notre Dame into the mix for the 2026 season. SMU will head to South Bend at a date to be announced for its 14th matchup all-time against the Irish.
With the move, SMU allowed Virginia to schedule a home-and-home with West Virginia. For the Mustangs, they’re not one game away from having its opponents for that season completed.
With 2024 and 2025 being two of the best home slates in decades, SMU’s home schedule in 2026 is Missouri State, Boston College, Cal, Virginia and Wake Forest.
On the flip side, the Mustangs face an insane test on paper at least with road trips to Baylor, Notre Dame, Florida State, Louisville, Stanford and Syracuse. While the program will be firmly settled in as an ACC member, that’s quite the schedule that’s on deck for the Mustangs.
This season though, SMU’s shown it can navigate a slate filled with Power Four programs, having played No. 9 BYU tough earlier this season and beaten TCU while facing off with the ACC schedule for the first time.
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Head coach Rhett Lashlee is excited about his group and said after the 48-25 win over Pitt last week showed the Mustangs belong in the Power Four.
“I think it means that SMU, our program belongs at this level and our program is capable of competing at a high level at this level,” Lashlee said. “Which we all believe, but it’s no different than everything else I just said about Kevin, we had to go do it. We’re not done. We’ve not accomplished anything yet, but we put ourselves in position that in the middle of November, we’re competing for a conference championship in the ACC in our first year in the league. So I think our players and our staff deserve a ton of credit for that.”
While the Mustangs won’t play Notre Dame until 2026, on Nov. 16 the 13th-ranked team in the College Football Playoff rankings takes on Boston College at home at 2:30 p.m. CT on ESPN.
