The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have rolled through the first half of their season, sitting at 6-0 heading into Saturday night’s top-10 showdown with the BYU Cougars in Provo. But one of the most prominent voices in college football isn’t impressed by how they got there.
Speaking on ESPN on Friday morning, Kirk Herbstreit called out Notre Dame’s lack of challenging games, labeling the Irish schedule “an embarrassment” as the College Football Playoff gets set to expand to 24 teams.
Notre Dame’s Light Slate
The No. 2 Fighting Irish have won all six of their games so far, beating Wisconsin, Rice, Michigan State, Purdue, North Carolina, and Stanford. Most of those games weren’t close, either, including last weekend’s 58-7 blowout of Stanford.
After Saturday’s trip to BYU, Notre Dame’s remaining schedule features Navy, Miami, Boston College, SMU, and Syracuse. Outside of BYU, the home game against the Hurricanes looks like the only real test left on the slate.
The Irish know how much the schedule matters, too. Notre Dame was left out of the 12-team playoff field last season after losing to Miami during the regular season. Now, with reports indicating that the CFP will grow to 24 teams for the 2027 season, the debate over who deserves a spot is only going to get louder.
‘That’s an embarrassment’
Herbstreit joined Mike Greenberg on Get Up to discuss the expansion news, and he made it clear that his biggest worry is regular-season games losing their importance. His solution is a complete overhaul of how teams build their schedules.
“Instead of each conference doing the scheduling, I think we need a national scheduling office that is in charge of getting games set,” Herbstreit told Greenberg, via Awful Announcing. “So we have not only somebody that’s looking at each conference, but looking at the totality of the conference scheduling, and we gotta have better non-conference games.”
“Now that you know you can get to 24, your ass better be playing real games against real teams to give fans and players games to get excited about,” he continued.
From there, Herbstreit called out Notre Dame specifically.
“Notre Dame plays two games where they’re going to be challenged. This one, where they’re favored, and Miami at home,” Herbstreit said. “Think about what Alabama and Georgia and Ohio State and these teams with what they’re dealing with. That cannot continue. That’s an embarrassment and incredibly unfair.”
Herbstreit also took aim at Indiana and other programs that load up on weak non-conference opponents, saying that “the Indiana way” has “got to be over.”
Changes Coming?
As it turns out, Herbstreit might get his wish. Under the new expansion deal, all Power 4 schools will reportedly be required to play at least 10 games against other Power 4 opponents.
Notre Dame will also be affected, according to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports.
“Notre Dame is expected to increase its frequency of playing SEC and Big Ten schools as part of the 24-team expansion,” Dellenger wrote on X.
So with the 24-team playoff seemingly a done deal, it sounds like change is on the way for Notre Dame.
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