NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The full University of Notre Dame football schedule for the 2021 season is now official — with a seven-game Irish home slate that features games against Toledo, Purdue, Cincinnati, USC, North Carolina, Navy and Georgia Tech.
In 2021, the Irish will play road games at Florida State, Virginia Tech, Virginia and Stanford. They also will play Wisconsin at Soldier Field in Chicago (home of the NFL Chicago Bears).
Notre Dame will face Toledo for the first time in school history, while the meeting with Cincinnati will be the first between the schools since 1900.
Notre Dame has traveled to both Virginia Tech and Virginia once previously in school history. The Irish rallied past the Cavaliers 34-27 in 2015, and routed the Hokies 45-23 in 2018.
The trip to Florida State that season will be Notre Dame’s fourth overall and first since 2014.
Notre Dame has played 12 previous games at Soldier Field, most recently in 2012 when the Irish routed Miami (Fla.) 41-3 in a Shamrock Series matchup. The Irish own an all-time record of 10-0-2 in the current home of the Chicago Bears.
A Labor Day contest with the Seminoles will be the second Monday regular-season game since 1975 (Notre Dame opens 2019 at Louisville on Labor Day). Notre Dame actually opened the 1974 and ’75 seasons on Monday against Georgia Tech and Boston College, respectively.
For just the fourth time since 1996, the Irish won’t open their season on a Saturday. Notre Dame opened the 1996 campaign on Thursday, Sept. 5, collecting a 14-7 win at Vanderbilt. The Irish opened the 2016 season with a loss at Texas on Sunday, Sept. 4, and will open this fall on Monday, Sept. 2, at Louisville.
Over the course of the 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 seasons, the Irish will have played regular-season road games in 12 different states from coast to coast — including five games in California, three in Virginia, three in North Carolina and two each in Illinois, Georgia and Michigan. The Irish will also play games in five of the top 10 metropolitan television markets in the country — New York (two games), Los Angeles (two), Chicago (two), San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose (two) and Atlanta. Notre Dame will also play in Dublin, Ireland, in 2020.
In addition, those four years include 29 combined regular-season games against 15 different teams that ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 at some point in 2018 — four each versus Stanford and USC, three versus Virginia Tech, two each versus Wisconsin, Florida State, Michigan, Duke, Virginia and Pittsburgh, plus one each versus Clemson, Georgia, Syracuse, Boston College, Northwestern and Cincinnati.
Notre Dame remains the only active college football program to ever play in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles in the same season. The Irish, who last accomplished the feat in 2018, have played in the United State’s three largest markets in the same year eight times (1926, ’28, ’34, ’38, ’40, ’42, ’92 and 2018).
2021 Notre Dame Football Schedule
| Date | Opponent | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| Sept. 6 | at Florida State | Doak Campbell Stadium, Tallahassee, Fla. |
| Sept. 11 | TOLEDO | NOTRE DAME STADIUM |
| Sept. 18 | PURDUE | NOTRE DAME STADIUM |
| Sept. 25 | vs. Wisconsin | Soldier Field, Chicago, Ill. |
| Oct. 2 | CINCINNATI | NOTRE DAME STADIUM |
| Oct. 9 | at Virginia Tech | Lane Stadium, Blacksburg, Va. |
| Oct. 16 | Bye Week | |
| Oct. 23 | USC | NOTRE DAME STADIUM |
| Oct. 30 | NORTH CAROLINA | NOTRE DAME STADIUM |
| Nov. 6 | NAVY | NOTRE DAME STADIUM |
| Nov. 13 | at Virginia | Scott Stadium, Charlottesville, Va. |
| Nov. 20 | GEORGIA TECH | NOTRE DAME STADIUM |
| Nov. 27 | at Stanford | Stanford Stadium, Stanford, Calif. |