Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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12 OCT. 3, 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME Notre Dame Women's, Men's Basketball Release Full 2026-27 Schedules The Notre Dame women's basketball team has big aspirations in three-time All-American Hannah Hidalgo's senior season, following a run to the NCAA Tourney's Elite Eight. And they have an ambitious regular-season schedule to match. The Irish filled in most of the blanks in their 2026-27 slate with a schedule reveal that includes four games against top-five teams, per ESPN's early top-25 rankings, and seven games against the top-10, with the Irish playing ACC foe and seventh-ranked Louisville twice. Notre Dame, with a freshman-heavy roster around Hidalgo, landed at No. 16 in the early rankings. The top-10 teams Notre Dame will face in addition to Louisville are No. 1 South Carolina and No. 5 Southern Cal in back-to-back days in the 2026 Players Era Showcase in Las Vegas (Dec. 19-20), No. 2 Connecticut Dec. 9 in South Bend, a home game with No. 3 Duke Jan. 10 and a road test at North Carolina Jan. 28. Just outside the top 10 is No. 11 Vanderbilt, and the Irish visit the Commodores on Dec. 3 in a rematch of their NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 game, won by Notre Dame, 67-64. Meanwhile, Notre Dame men's basketball fans can expect home cooking early this season. Fourth-year head coach Micah Shrewsberry's team does not play a true road game during nonconference play. Notre Dame opens the season on Nov. 1 in Rome, Italy, and travels to Las Vegas for the Players Era multi-team event from Nov. 17-19, but aside from that, the Irish do not leave South Bend until Jan. 9. They play nine consecutive home games from Nov. 24-Jan. 6, which is a program record according to a team spokesperson. Notre Dame plays the home end of home-and-homes against Ohio State and TCU this season, and they play their ACC/SEC Challenge game against Vanderbilt in South Bend as well. — Eric Hansen and Jack Soble 2026-27 NOTRE DAME WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE Date Opponent Time (ET) Oct. 26 Truman State+ TBA Nov. 1 vs. Villanova! Noon Nov. 6 Stonehill TBA Nov. 10 Detroit Mercy TBA Nov. 14 TBA TBA Nov. 18 Southern TBA Nov. 24 vs. Davidson 1 p.m. Nov. 26 vs. West Virginia 11:30 a.m. Dec. 3 at Vanderbilt# TBA Dec. 6 Florida State* TBA Dec. 9 Connecticut TBA Dec. 13 Bowling Green TBA Dec. 19 vs. Southern Cal% 11 p.m. Dec. 20 vs. South Carolina% 7:30 p.m. Dec. 28 at Pittsburgh* TBA Dec. 31 California* TBA Jan. 3 at Miami* TBA Jan. 7 at Virginia Tech* TBA Jan. 10 Duke* TBA Jan. 14 Georgia Tech* TBA Jan. 17 at Syracuse* TBA Jan. 21 at Louisville* TBA Jan. 28 at North Carolina* TBA Jan. 31 Stanford* TBA Feb. 4 SMU* TBA Feb. 7 at Clemson* TBA Feb. 11 Virginia* TBA Feb. 14 Wake Forest* TBA Feb. 18 at NC State* TBA Feb. 21 at Boston College* TBA Feb. 28 Louisville* TBA + Exhibition;! at Rome, Italy; # ACC/SEC Chal- lenge; ^ Paradise Island at Bahamas; * ACC game; % at Las Vegas 2026-27 NOTRE DAME MEN'S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE Date Opponent Time (ET) Oct. 17 at Dayton+ TBA Oct. 23 at DePaul+ TBA Nov. 1 vs. Villanova! 9:30 a.m. Nov. 5 Mercyhurst TBA Nov. 9 Eastern Illinois TBA Nov. 11 South Carolina State TBA Nov. 17 vs. Florida^ 4:30 p.m. Nov. 18 vs. Houston or Rutgers^ TBA Nov. 19 vs. TBD^ TBA Nov. 24 Central Michigan TBA Nov. 28 Stonehill TBA Dec. 2 Vanderbilt# 7:15 p.m. Dec. 5 TCU TBA Dec. 8 Long Island TBA Dec. 12 Ohio State TBA Dec. 21 Le Moyne TBA Dec. 30 Stanford* TBA Jan. 6 Virginia Tech* TBA Jan. 9 at Georgia Tech* TBA Jan. 12 at Wake Forest* TBA Jan. 16 California* TBA Jan. 20 Pittsburgh* TBA Jan. 23 at Duke* TBA Jan. 26 at Florida State* TBA Jan. 30 SMU* TBA Feb. 2 North Carolina* TBA Feb. 6 at Boston College* TBA Feb. 13 at Virginia* TBA Feb. 16/17 Wake Forest* TBA Feb. 20 at Miami* TBA Feb. 24 at NC State* TBA Feb. 27 Syracuse* TBA March 2 at Clemson* TBA March 6 Boston College* TBA + Exhibition; ! Rome, Italy; ^ Players Era in Las Vegas; # ACC/SEC Challenge; *ACC game NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL INJURY REPORT Notre Dame boasted about its safety depth all offseason. At least for Week 4, it needed it. The Irish ruled senior safety Luke Talich out for Sept. 26 at Purdue, two days before the matchup. Talich sustained a left wrist injury late in Notre Dame's win against Michigan State in Week 3. Notre Dame head coach Marcus Free- man does not expect Talich to be out long. "We hope to hopefully get him back next week [at North Carolina], is what we're expecting," Freeman said. Junior safety Brauntae Johnson, a pre- season All-American by several outlets and the Week 1 starter at Talich's posi- tion, also remains out with a foot injury. Freshman safety Joey O'Brien made his first career start Saturday in West Lafay- ette, Ind., alongside third-year starter and two-time captain Adon Shuler. It's unfortunate timing for Talich, who was seen walking to the locker room at the tail end of Notre Dame's 27-10 victory over Michigan State. He was coming off a career game against the Spartans, hauling in his first interception of the season and his first career sack. Talich picked off 3 passes in 2025, play- ing a sub-package safety role for Notre Dame's defense. While the Cody, Wyo., product finished 22nd on the Irish in de- fensive snaps, his contributions in third- and-long, short-yardage, two-minute and red-zone situations were critical. The past two weeks in a starting role, his play did not represent a drop-off from Johnson, a preseason All-American by multiple outlets. In other injury updates, Johnson and wide receiver Quincy Porter will both be out another "couple weeks," according to Freeman. Defensive tackle Jason Onye and right guard Matty Augustine are also expected to miss more time, and offen- sive lineman Charles Jagusah remains out indefinitely. Porter has yet to play in a Notre Dame uniform, but he's making progress with a longer-than-expected recovery from off- season knee surgery. "Probably since he's gotten here, he's doing more than he's ever done," Free- man said. "He had a good week. He's in- creased his volume this week in terms of what he's been able to do. He's not practicing with the offense, but he's doing individual [drills]. And so, I think he's a couple of weeks away. He's getting closer and we're going on the right trajectory." — Jack Soble