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 at UCLA (Sat 8:00 PM ET ABC)
After Notre Dame shuts out beats concludes its game against Duke, head on over to ABC to watch the Stanford run game. This should be a treemendous West Coast matchup, and we may get our first inkling if either UCLA or the Cardinal can contend in the Pac-12. Christian McCaffrey will be the main storyline here, but Josh Rosen’s development against a well-coached Stanford defense (is that allowed?) will show Irish fans what they can expect to see from the Notre Dame offense.
Strength-of-Schedule Rankings
Last week, ND opponents went 8-4. On the year, opponents have a combined record of 24-10 (70.6%) with an average schedule strength of 80.
Rank |
Team |
Record |
Weekly Change |
| 1 | Southern Cal | 1-2 | +2 |
| 7 | Stanford | 2-0 | +24 |
| 22 | Notre Dame | 1-2 | +13 |
| 26 | Syracuse | 1-2 | +55 |
| 43 | Texas | 2-1 | +13 |
| 70 | Virginia Tech | 2-1 | -13 |
| 80 | Michigan State | 2-0 | +119 |
| 97 | Nevada | 2-1 | -44 |
| 104 | Duke | 1-2 | +73 |
| 123 | Army | 3-0 | -29 |
| 138 | NC State | 2-1 | -49 |
| 144 | Navy | 3-0 | +29 |
| 184 | Miami | 3-0 | +34 |
Other Upcoming Opponents
- Southern Cal at Utah (Fri 9:00 PM ET Fox Sports 1)
- Virginia Tech vs East Carolina (Sat 12:30 PM ET ACC Network)
- Syracuse at Connecticut (Sat 1:00 PM ET CBS Sports Network)
- Army at Buffalo (Sat 7:00 PM ET ESPN3)
Past Opponents
- Michigan State vs Wisconsin (Sat 12:00 PM ET Big Ten Network)
- Nevada at Purdue (Sat 12:00 PM ET ESPN News)
Powered by SC schadenfreude, husband to Mrs. IrishElvis (not pictured), rabble rouser. TCB.
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