Just one day after the Notre Dame football team found out it gets to play Wisconsin, complete with Luke Fickell, to open the 2026 season, Irish fans found out that Marcus Freeman and company will no longer take on Florida State next year. The development is an issue for ND, which relies on its schedule having plenty of big-name teams on its slate in order to make the College Football Playoffs.
Blue and Gold's Eric Hansen was the first to get confirmation that the planned Florida State game was canceled, though there had been whispers for quite a while now. The matchup against the Seminoles was part of a deal the Irish have with the ACC that features as many as six games a year. However, there have been years where there's only been four or five games between the school and the conference.
Notre Dame football could replace Seminoles with long-time rival USC
FSU had taken the Irish off their website schedule months ago, but people started noticing it in the last week. That led to more than a few questions about whether it was intentional and a sign. Turns out it was.
Some interesting changes to Notre Dame's 2026 schedule according to FBS Schedules. FSU off and USC on the slate is a change from yesterday. 🤔 pic.twitter.com/ENhV7uemxQ
— Oliver VanDervoort (@itmeolliev) November 7, 2025
There is an argument that Notre Dame could get a better schedule with the Seminoles not a part of their 2026 slate. Especially since this is something that's been in the works for a while. It doesn't appear it caught the Irish off guard.
It's possible that Florida State dropping off the schedule could mean that the Irish are about to announce they've reached a deal with USC to keep the long rivalry going. It's very far from official but FBS Schedules, a site that tracks future schedules for every team in the country now has USC on the slate. That game wasn't there recently as Thursday.
Other than the game itself, the most notable part of that addition is that it's not clear where the game will be played. A date and time not being available is normal this early, but a site being a question is not.
Having said all that, most Notre Dame football fans would gladly trade Florida State for USC. Especially after the last two less than impressive seasons for the Seminoles.