Notre Dame’s October trip to Provo is set for a Saturday night stage, and the setup is as good as it gets: two unbeaten teams, a primetime window and a road test that should tell us plenty about both sides.
The matchup, announced today, will kick off on October 17 in Provo, Utah. It’s Notre Dame’s first visit there since 2004, when the Irish fell 20-17. It’s also a game that drew plenty of attention earlier this offseason after the annual Notre Dame-USC rivalry came to an end, with BYU’s rise helping strengthen the Cougars’ overall schedule in a way that now looks very real.
BYU has spent the early part of the season making that case on the field. Kalani Sitake’s team is 4-0 for the third straight year, already 2-0 in conference play and likely to still be unbeaten when Notre Dame arrives, with Iowa State up next on Saturday.
The Cougars are being driven by quarterback Bear Bachmeier, who has opened 2026 with 704 passing yards and six touchdowns. He’s been just as dangerous as a runner, adding 130 yards and four scores on the ground while throwing only one interception.
Notre Dame, meanwhile, is rolling in a way that fits Marcus Freeman’s best stretches. The Irish are 5-0 for the first time under Freeman and carrying a 15-game winning streak, with every victory in that run coming by 10 points or more. They head into this weekend with Stanford visiting South Bend for a Legends Trophy matchup, and that streak will be on the line again there.
The time change gives the game a little twist, too. With the two-hour difference, kickoff will come at 5:30 PM local time in Provo, but it still lands squarely in the night-game bucket. That’s a setting Freeman and Notre Dame know well.
Under Freeman, the Irish have played 11 primetime games away from Notre Dame Stadium and gone 7-4 in those contests. Three of those wins came in Shamrock Series games where Notre Dame was technically the home team - against BYU in 2022, Army in 2024 and Wisconsin in 2026. In true road primetime games, Notre Dame is 4-4.
The road-night résumé under Freeman includes wins at Duke and Stanford in 2023, Texas A&M in 2024 and Stanford in 2025. The losses have come against Ohio State and USC in 2022, Louisville in 2023 and Miami in 2025. Against ranked teams on the road at night, Freeman’s Irish are 2-4, and that number is sure to hang over the build-up to a trip that already has the feel of a measuring stick game.
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