With college football kicking off the 2026 season in earnest Saturday, is No. 4 Notre Dame on the schedule in Week 1? As it turns out, with the NFL still idle, fans of the Fighting Irish will need to wait until Sunday night to watch Notre Dame open its season with a game at legendary Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Notre Dame’s opponent will, in fact, be Wisconsin, in what is officially a makeup game postponed from the pandemic-marred 2020 season. In 2026, Notre Dame opens as a 20.5-point favorite over Wisconsin, with redshirt sophomore C.J. Carr under center.
Kickoff arrives at 7:30 p.m. ET, Sunday, Sept. 6 on NBC. Dan Hicks will call the play-by-play with Jason Garrett handling in-game analysis. The NBC-owned Peacock app carries the live stream of Notre Dame vs. Wisconsin.
The game was scheduled for October 2020 until the COVID-19 pandemic erased it. In addition, the game was moved to a Sunday slot to capitalize on the Labor Day weekend window, according to a Wisconsin announcement. Notre Dame won the first Shamrock Series meeting 41-13 at Soldier Field in 2021. Wisconsin’s only other game at Lambeau produced a 16-14 takedown of fifth-ranked LSU in 2016.
Notre Dame Quarterback C.J. Carr Enters Year Two
Carr threw for 2,741 yards with 24 touchdowns and six interceptions last season, completing 66.6 percent of his attempts and adding three scores on the ground. He is the first Notre Dame quarterback since Ian Book in 2020 to open a season as the returning starter, and he arrives on the Heisman shortlist, according to Sports Illustrated college football analyst Nick Shepkowski.
Behind Carr, the QB depth chart thins out fast. Redshirt freshman Blake Hebert has never taken a college snap, and the other two scholarship options are true freshmen Noah Grubbs and Teddy Jarrard, who reclassified out of the 2027 class. Head coach Marcus Freeman has declined to lock in a No. 2, saying only that a designated replacement exists and that he wants both freshmen on the field when the score allows, according to The Athletic‘s Notre Dame camp report.
The ground game Carr inherits looks nothing like last year’s. First-round draft picks Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price are in the NFL with the Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks, respectively, leaving junior Aneyas Williams to head a rotation with Nolan James Jr. and Kedren Young. The Irish ranked 17th nationally at 203.4 rushing yards per game and tied for fifth with 38 rushing touchdowns in 2025. Senior captain Jordan Faison, who led the team with 49 catches for 640 yards, anchors the receivers.
| NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH — 2026 SCHEDULE | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Opponent | Location | Kickoff (ET) | Network |
| Sun, Sep 6 | Wisconsin | Neutral Site | 7:30 PM | NBC |
| Sat, Sep 12 | Rice | South Bend, IN | 3:30 PM | NBC |
| Sat, Sep 19 | Michigan State | South Bend, IN | 7:30 PM | NBC |
| Sat, Sep 26 | @ Purdue | West Lafayette, IN | TBD | TBD |
| Sat, Oct 3 | @ North Carolina | Chapel Hill, NC | TBD | TBD |
| Sat, Oct 10 | Stanford | South Bend, IN | 3:30 PM | |
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