ESPN didn’t need long to settle on BYU-Notre Dame.
The network’s “College GameDay” crew is heading back to Provo for Saturday’s showdown after the Cougars beat Iowa State 24-10 on Friday night and Notre Dame rolled past Stanford 58-7 the next day. The timing mattered, but the matchup had been building toward this for a while.
Veteran broadcaster Rece Davis said on a Sept. 28 podcast that BYU was very much in the mix.
“I think there’s a really good chance we’ll be at BYU (for ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’),” Davis said. “I’m just looking at the schedule, and it might be the best game of the weekend and both might still be undefeated. And if they are, even on a very competitive Saturday, it will certainly be a contender.”
That prediction came true last Saturday, when ESPN confirmed the trip to Provo for the first time in 17 years.
According to ESPN spokesperson Courtney Clawson, the show’s site picks are driven by the weekly slate and the strongest storylines.
“We evaluate the upcoming slate of games and storylines every week,” Clawson told The Salt Lake Tribune.
“Each week, site selections are typically made either Saturday night or Sunday morning based on the most compelling matchup and storylines.”
Clawson also pointed to the attention the game had already drawn when it was scheduled.
“This Notre Dame-BYU game has generated significant interest since it was scheduled,” Clawson said, noting Davis’ podcast with colleagues Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel. “As college football’s premier pregame show, College GameDay’s goal is always to be at the biggest games with the most compelling storylines each week. Our whole team is excited to return to Provo this weekend for the first time since 2009.”
And the storyline is a strong one. Saturday’s game could be the biggest home date in BYU history.
It’s the first time two top-10 teams have met in Provo, and the highest-ranked visitor to come to LaVell Edwards Stadium since then-No. 1 USC - featuring Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart - played there in 2004.
There’s plenty on the line beyond the pageantry, too. Notre Dame is 6-0 and thinking about the College Football Playoff. BYU is unbeaten at 5-0 overall and 3-0 in the Big 12, and the Cougars are chasing the same postseason goal.
“For us, we need to be at our best,” head coach Kalani Sitake said. “I think these games get the sense of urgency up a little quicker.”
Sitake understands what Notre Dame brings with it: the profile, the tradition and the history shaped by Knute Rockne, Lou Holtz and, most recently, Marcus Freeman. When the Irish reached out after their series with USC was put on temporary hiatus, BYU didn’t hesitate.
“It would be crazy for us to turn them down,” he said Monday. “When they reached out and wanted a series, I thought it was a huge opportunity for us to play them.”
This will be the 10th meeting between the programs. The series began in 1992, and Notre Dame has won seven of the first nine, including a 28-20 victory in 2022 in Las Vegas in the Shamrock Series, which replaced a previously scheduled game in Provo.
“I’d like to think that we’re different as a program and a team now than we were in that game,” Sitake said. “But so is Notre Dame.”
The connection between the schools goes beyond the scoreboard. Both are major football schools with deep faith-based identities, and their history stretches back more than a century.
In 1923, BYU athletic director E.L. Roberts asked Rockne to come to Provo for a coaching seminar, as the Cougars were still trying to build their program.
Rockne spent several weeks working with then-head coach Alvin Twitchell and other staffers.
Now, more than 100 years later, the programs meet again with the college football spotlight fixed on Provo.
“We’re looking forward to an exciting show on Saturday,” Clawson said.
In Other News...
BYU Red Zone Failure Just Got Even More Frustrating
A late-game red-zone trip against Iowa State turned into another reminder of how thin the margin can be for BYU when communication breaks down at the wrong moment. On a critical fourth down, quarterback Bear Bachmeier misheard offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick and checked into the wrong play, and the Cougars came away empty after a turnover on downs.
Aaron Roderick later acknowledged the miscommunication and said he took responsibility for a failed fourth-down call earlier in the game, which only added to the frustration around a drive that had real stakes. Iowa State head coach Jimmy Rogers also said his team dealt with headset communication issues in the third and fourth quarters, a detail that underscored how messy the game got when both sides were fighting not just the opponent, but the equipment and the noise around it. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Has A Huge Chance To Change The Big 12 Race
BYUs rise to the top of the Week 6 Big 12 power rankings has put the Cougars in a spot they could hardly have imagined a few weeks ago. With Utah sitting right behind at No. 2, the conference picture suddenly feels crowded at the top, and the recent results around the league have only sharpened the focus on how quickly the race can change.
The next stretch matters just as much as the current standings, because the rankings are built not only on what teams have already done but on what they still have in front of them. Three reporters ballots helped shape the order, and BYU now has a chance to turn a strong start into something more lasting if it can handle the challenges ahead in Big 12 play. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Vs Notre Dame Just Became A Massive Home Stage For The Cougars
A rare November spotlight is about to hit Provo, and the secondary market says fans know it. The BYU-Notre Dame game has become the priciest ticket in a crowded weekend slate of top 25 matchups, with a get-in price of $450 and some seats listed for more than $13,000 on SeatGeek. For a program that has spent plenty of time fighting for national respect, this is the kind of stage that makes LaVell Edwards Stadium feel bigger than ever.
The stakes explain the demand. This is BYUs first top 10 matchup at home, and it arrives with real College Football Playoff implications attached. Other marquee games around the country are drawing strong prices too, including Ohio State-Indiana and Alabama-Tennessee, but this one stands out because it puts the Cougars at the center of the weekend conversation. For BYU, it is more than a big ticket market - it is a chance to turn a home crowd into a postseason argument. [Read more 🡒]