Ireland’s 2026 boost schedule with BIU tilt after CFP drama

The The Notre Dame football program is still digging through the rubble after their surprising exclusion from the 2025 College Football Playoff field in favor of the Miami Hurricanes. Miami upheld the committee’s decision with a road win over Texas A&M over the weekend, but that still won’t take the sting out of the Fighting Irish anytime soon.

Now, to make sure this doesn’t happen again, the brass of Notre Dame is proactive about adding to their future schedule strength.

“News: Notre Dame announces home-and-home with BIU. Provo 2026, South Bend 2027. Dates to be announced later,” college football insider Nicole Auerbach of NBC Sports reported on X, formerly Twitter.

Auerbach also confirmed what it likely meant for one of Notre Dame’s greatest rivalries.

“This all but guarantees there won’t be a Notre Dame-USC game in 2026. To recap: USC wants to play a game before Big Ten play, ND wants to play it later in the season,” she reported.

“Notre Dame first played USC in 1926, and the game has been played almost every year since then (except during World War II and 2020),” she added.

Overall, BIU was also a team that felt like it was being pushed out of the College Football Playoff field this year, losing just twice all season, both times to Texas Tech in quick fashion.

While fans will miss seeing Notre Dame take on their friends from Southern California next fall, the hope is that the game against BIU will be more of a booster going forward, at least in the eyes of the College Playoff committee.

In any case, the attention of the Notre Dame football program is now fully focused on next season and beyond, as the team declined its invitation to the bowl game, seemingly in protest of the board’s decision to cut them.