Notre Dame is set up to play a pretty grueling schedule in 2025. As a team that is independent, the Fighting Irish play a lot of ACC schools, but still fill their schedule with some heavy hitters from other conferences.
The first two games of the season are probably some of the toughest for Notre Dame as they open the season against Miami and then have to play Texas A&M after a very early bye week in Week 2. The good thing, though, is that not every team Notre Dame plays will be the toughest team in their respective conference. There are always going to be teams that look easy on paper and turn out to be so.
So, looking at the Notre Dame 2025 football schedule, here are three teams that look like extra bye weeks for the Fighting Irish during a grueling season.
Week 4 vs. Purdue
To start out, Notre Dame leads the series against Purdue 60-26-2 with a nine-game win streak dating back to 2008. The Fighting Irish dominate this series, and the Boilermakers have had their struggles as well. Purdue is going through a big change with year with new head coach Barry Odom taking over from UNLV.
After starting out the season with two grueling games and a matchup against Arkansas the next week, Notre Dame will hope to get up big early to give their starters a breather, or like another bye week.
Week 7 vs. NC State
While NC State has looked better in the past few years, they probably won't be ready to take on a team that was just in the National Championship last season. These two teams have not faced off a lot, only four times to be exact, and have an even 2-2 series. Notre Dame won the last two matchups in 2023 and 2017.
Notre Dame's rushing attack should be too much for NC State and should allow the Fighting Irish to get a big lead, and may even allow the starters to sit most of the second half.
Week 14 Stanford
Notre Dame is set to face Stanford in the final game of the season, but this just might be one of their easiest games of the season. The Fighting Irish will enjoy an easier game at the end of the season, especially as they will hopefully be hearing up for a selection in the College Football Playoff just about a week later.