The full 2025-26 schedule can be found here.
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The 2025-26 Notre Dame women’s basketball schedule is here, and there are several marquee matchups, including non-conference rematches from last season with USC and Connecticut and an ACC schedule with seven opponents who made the NCAA Tournament last season.
Following an Oct. 30 exhibition against Purdue Northwest, Notre Dame will start the season at Purcell Pavilion on Nov. 5 against first-time opponent Fairleigh Dickinson and on Nov. 9 against Chicago State. Fairleigh Dickinson is coming off of a 2024-25 NEC Championship and earned its first ever NCAA Tournament berth last season. The Irish will stay at home for a regional game against Akron on Nov. 12, where Notre Dame senior KK Bransford’s sister, Kailee, will be a freshman.
Following the three-game home stand, Notre Dame hits the road for the first time with a Nov. 15 neutral site matchup, and the opponent and location will be announced at a later date.
Up next will be Notre Dame’s marquee home nonconference game of the season, a bout with Southern Cal on Nov. 21. The matchup will be a Friday night clash before Notre Dame football hosts Syracuse the following day. The Irish-Trojans game last season was in Los Angeles, and No. 6 Notre Dame downed No. 3 USC on its home court, 74-61. Hannah Hidalgo had 24 points, as did USC phenom JuJu Watkins.
Notre Dame hosts Central Michigan on Nov. 24 as its final game before Thanksgiving and won’t play again until the 2025 ACC/SEC Challenge on Dec. 4 against Ole Miss. It will be Notre Dame’s first trip to Oxford and just the second meeting ever between the two teams. The first was the Second Round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament, and Notre Dame won 71-56. The Irish will stay on the road to open conference play on Dec. 7, making a trip to Florida State.
Sandwiched between home dates against Morehead State (Dec. 11) and Bellarmine (Dec. 21), the Irish will head to Virginia on Dec. 14 to face James Madison and close out a home-and-home series that started last year. Notre Dame hosted JMU last year and beat the Dukes 92-46 before the team went on to win the Sun Belt regular season conference title.
The Irish will close out the 2025 calendar year by hosting Pittsburgh on Dec. 29 in a rare Monday ACC clash before going back on the road to face a pair of 2025 NCAA Tournament participants, Georgia Tech (Jan. 1) and Duke (Jan. 4). Duke returns 10 players and 67.7 percent of its scoring from last season, the highest mark in the ACC.
Following the road trip to start 2026, Notre Dame has five consecutive home ACC games with a trip to Connecticut on Jan. 19 sandwiched in between. The Irish will host Boston College (Jan. 8), North Carolina (Jan. 11) and Louisville (Jan. 15) before seeing the reigning national champions in Storrs and will return home to host Miami (Jan. 22) and Clemson (Jan. 25). Notre Dame has had UConn’s number in recent seasons, defeating the Huskies in three straight matchups.
The Irish play three of their next four contests on road following the Clemson game, including a trip to the West Coast to play Cal (Jan. 29) and Stanford (Feb. 1) at their respective places for the first time since they joined the ACC. When the newcomers visited South Bend last year, Notre Dame’s offense was humming; the Irish drubbed Stanford, 96-47, and beat No. 21 Cal, 91-52. The 39-point victory is the largest win over a ranked ACC opponent since Notre Dame joined the conference.
Next, Notre Dame will host Virginia Tech on Feb. 5 and play at Virginia on Feb. 8 before a bye week. On paper, Stanford, Virginia Tech and Virginia are three of the most experienced teams entering this season with 54.1, 54.7 and 61.3 percent of their scoring production returning from last season, respectively.
On Feb. 15, the Irish will try to notch a win over NC State. The Wolfpack have won the last three regular season meetings, but Notre Dame earned the win in the 2024 ACC Tournament Championship. Last season’s matchup featured the No. 1-ranked Irish and went down to the wire in double overtime before NC State earned the win.
The Irish go back on the road next to face Wake Forest (Feb. 19) and SMU (Feb. 22), two teams that struggled mightily last season and who return four and zero players, respectively, from last year’s team. SMU is the only team in the ACC without a returning player and will be led by new head coach Adia Barnes next season. Also of note, the Wake Forest game will be a homecoming for Malaya Cowles, who transferred to Notre Dame this year after five seasons with the Demon Deacons. She is also from just down the road in Wilkesboro, N.C.
Notre Dame will close out the 2025-26 home slate with Syracuse on Feb. 26 and play at Louisville on March 1 in its sole duplicate ACC game of the year. The Irish are extremely familiar with both former Big East foes, having played Syracuse 46 times (the most of any ACC opponent) and Louisville 36 times.
Notre Dame finished last season 28-6, won a share of the regular season ACC title, and earned its fourth consecutive Sweet 16 berth. The Irish defeated eight top-25 opponents in the regular season, including No. 3 Southern Cal, No. 4 Texas and No. 2 Connecticut.
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Series Records
(*Indicates ACC game)
Fairleigh Dickinson — First Meeting
Chicago State — Irish lead 3-0 // Last Meeting: Nov. 21, 2023
Akron — Irish lead 1-0 // Last Meeting: Nov. 11, 2011
USC — Irish lead 9-2 // Last Meeting: Nov. 23, 2024
Central Michigan — Irish lead 5-1 // Last Meeting: Nov. 11, 2016
Ole Miss — Irish lead 1-0 // Last Meeting: March 25, 2024
*Florida State — Irish lead 13-2 // Last Meeting: Feb. 27, 2025
Morehead State — Irish lead 1-0 // Last Meeting: Nov. 15, 2010
James Madison — Dukes lead 2-1 // Last Meeting: Nov. 13, 2024
Bellarmine — First Meeting
*Pittsburgh — Irish lead 37-4 // Last Meeting: Feb. 13, 2025
*Georgia Tech — Irish lead 19-1 // Last Meeting: Jan. 16, 2025
*Duke — Irish lead 19-5 // Last Meeting: March 8, 2025
*Boston College — Irish lead 31-9 // Last Meeting: Jan. 23, 2025
*North Carolina — Irish lead 11-5 // Last Meeting: Jan. 5, 2025
*Louisville — Irish lead 22-14 // Last Meeting: March 2, 2025
Connecticut — Huskies lead 39-16 // Last Meeting: Dec. 12, 2024
*Miami — Irish lead 26-6 // Last Meeting: Feb. 20, 2025
*Clemson — Irish lead 10-3 // Last Meeting: Jan. 12, 2025
*California — Irish lead 5-0 // Last Meeting: March 7, 2025
*Stanford — Cardinal leads 4-3 // Last Meeting: Feb. 6, 2025
*Virginia Tech — Irish lead 18-2 // Last Meeting: Jan. 30, 2025
*Virginia — Irish lead 11-3 // Last Meeting: Dec. 29, 2024
*NC State — Irish lead 10-6 // Last Meeting: Feb. 23, 2025
*Wake Forest — Irish lead 13-0 // Last Meeting: Jan. 9, 2025
*SMU — Irish lead 3-1 // Last Meeting: Jan. 19, 2025
*Syracuse — Irish lead 40-6 // Last Meeting: Dec. 8, 2024