Each week in this space, we examine two things: Notre Dame’s strength of schedule (from USA Today‘s Sagarin rankings), and who Irish opponents are facing. For those of who want to scout future opponents, I’ll give you my recommendation for who to watch when you’re not watching Notre Dame Football.

Who To Watch

Stanford vs Oregon (Sat 7:30pm ET Fox)

 

In a game that will be VERY interesting for Notre Dame fans, the Cardinal head north to Eugene this weekend. The Fox executives probably had grand visions of the importance of this late-season matchup, but this will most likely decide the Pac-12 North champion. Stanford’s offense has been chugging along with increasing regularity as the year has progressed, and Oregon’s passing game will give the Irish a blueprint of what works (and what doesn’t) against the Cardinal secondary.

Strength-of-Schedule Rankings

Last week, ND opponents went 6-4. On the year, ND opponents are a combined 61-47 (56.5%), with an average schedule strength of 41.

Rank	Team	Record	Weekly Change
8	Texas	4-5	-7
11	Virginia	3-6	—
14	Southern Cal	6-3	-9
16	Notre Dame	8-1	—
18	Georgia Tech	3-6	-6
27	Clemson	9-0	+1
28	Pittsburgh	6-3	+7
31	Stanford	8-1	-8
46	Boston College	3-7	—
60	Wake Forest	3-6	-4
76	Massachusetts	1-8	-15
77	Navy	7-1	+19
99	Temple	8-1	-2

Past Opponents

• Georgia Tech vs Virginia Tech (Thu 7:30pm ET ESPN)
• Southern Cal at Colorado (Fri 9pm ET ESPN2)
• Texas at West Virginia (Sat 12pm ET ESPNU)
• Pittsburgh at Duke (Sat 12pm ET ESPN News)
• Virginia at Louisville (Sat 12:30pm ET ESPN3)
• Massachusetts at Eastern Michigan (Sat 3pm ET ESPN3)
• Clemson at Syracuse (Sat 3:30pm ET ABC/ESPN2)
• Navy vs SMU (Sat 3:30pm ET CBS Sports Network)
• Temple at South Florida (Sat 7pm ET CBS Sports Network)