The Fighting Irish are the trendy pick to finally break through and win it all. Standing in their way early is a BYU team that just proved it belongs in every one of these conversations.
Bush’s Picks
NDBYU
NDBYU
OverUnder
Best BetNotre Dame
Notre Dame enters as the more complete roster with a Heisman-caliber quarterback and a defense that kept them in every game a year ago, and that talent gap should show up on a neutral field. BYU's ceiling is real, but asking a true sophomore quarterback to beat a top-3 team on the road in a hostile setting is a lot to ask twice in a row. Back the Irish to win outright, even if it's not comfortable.
Notre Dame
+CJ Carr tied for Heisman favorite, 24 TDs last year
+Preseason No. 3 in FPI, No. 1 in Steele's poll
+Leads all-time series 6-2 over BYU
−Left tackle Jagusah out for the season
−Captain guard Schrauth expected to miss multiple weeks
−Missed CFP and skipped bowl after 10-2 finish
BYU
+Bear Bachmeier: 3,000+ yards, 26 total TDs as a freshman
+LJ Martin regarded as Big 12's best running back
+Coaches picked BYU as preseason Big 12 favorite
−Only 2 wins over Notre Dame in 8 all-time meetings
−Lost Big 12 title game to Texas Tech last year
−Bachmeier still unproven against top-tier competition
Notre Dame comes into 2026 as the preseason No. 3 team in ESPN's FPI and the outright favorite in Phil Steele's rankings, all built around CJ Carr coming back after a 2,741-yard, 24-touchdown debut season. Carr is currently tied with Arch Manning as the betting favorite for the Heisman, and Marcus Freeman has the offensive line and receiving corps around him looking deeper than a year ago. BYU counters with its own returning star in Bear Bachmeier, who threw for more than 3,000 yards and accounted for 26 total touchdowns as a true freshman, good enough to win Big 12 Freshman of the Year and to make BYU the coaches' preseason pick to win the conference over Texas Tech.
This is a rematch of programs with real recent stakes. Notre Dame finished 10-2 a year ago, got left out of the College Football Playoff, and pulled out of a bowl game entirely in protest — a snub that's fueling a lot of the preseason hype now. BYU had arguably the better résumé, going 12-2, reaching its first-ever Big 12 Championship Game before falling to Texas Tech, and closing the year with a Pop-Tarts Bowl appearance against Georgia Tech. Both programs are entering this one with something to prove, just from different angles — Notre Dame wants to show last year's snub was the anomaly, BYU wants to show last year's breakthrough was the new normal.
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ND Notre Dame
BYU BYU
Notre Dame isn't without questions up front. Left tackle Charles Jagusah is out for the season, and starting guard and team captain Billy Schrauth is expected to miss multiple weeks, which puts real pressure on an offensive line that's supposed to be the thing that unlocks Carr's next step. BYU, meanwhile, gets to build around LJ Martin, who enters the year regarded as the best running back in the Big 12, giving Bachmeier a run game to lean on if South Bend's night in Provo gets tight.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
BYU Cougars
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
History leans hard toward the Irish — Notre Dame has won 6 of the 8 all-time meetings between these programs, and BYU's only two wins in the series came in 1994 and 2004. But this isn't the same BYU that used to be a scheduling curiosity for blue bloods. Kalani Sitake's program has now won back-to-back-to-back Big 12 titles worth of momentum and is being talked about nationally as a team that can play with anybody, home or away.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Oct 10?vs Stanford—
Oct 2?@ North Carolina—
Sep 25?@ Purdue—
Sep 19?vs Michigan State—
Sep 12?vs Rice—
Sep 6?vs Wisconsin—
BYU Cougars
Oct 9?vs Iowa State—
Oct 2?@ TCU—
Sep 19?@ Colorado State—
Sep 12?vs Arizona—
Sep 5?vs Utah Tech—
Recent form.
Kickoff is set for 11:00 PM ET on Friday, October 16, a late slot at BYU that's become something of a home-field weapon for the Cougars in Provo. If Notre Dame's offensive line questions linger into October, that's exactly the kind of environment where BYU's crowd and Bachmeier's poise could make life miserable for a Notre Dame team that's spent all offseason hearing how good it's supposed to be.
