Where will college football's elite battle for glory in 2026 and 2027? Discover the thrilling matchups and iconic stadiums hosting the championship dreams.
Notre Dame will look to become a regular in the College Football Playoff in 2026 and beyond, and now the Irish know where they might be playing should they be able to land a playoff berth and advance. The CFB announced today it's schedule and locations for quarterfinal and semifinal games over the next two seasons.
The quarterfinals for the 2026 season will be on Wednesday, December 30th and Friday, January 1st. It's interesting that they are not playing a game on the 31st, which means the winner of the game on the 30th gets extra time. It would seem they don't want to compete with Thursday Night Football from the NFL that evening.
The playoff locations for the quarterfinal games are the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl (Glendale, Ariz.), the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic (Arlington, Texas), the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl (Atlanta, Ga.) and the Rose Bowl (Pasadena, Calif.).
The semifinal games this season will be played on January 14th in the Capital One Orange Bowl (Miami Gardens, Fla.) and January 15th in the Allstate Sugar Bowl (New Orleans, La.). The national championship game will be played on January 25th in Las Vegas.
In 2027, the quarterfinal games will be played on Friday, December 31st in the Allstate Sugar Bowl and on Saturday, January 1st in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl, the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl and the Rose Bowl. The semi-finals will be played on Thursday, January 13th in the Capital One Orange Bowl and on Friday, January 14th in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic. The title game will be played on Monday, January 24th in New Orleans.
In 2024-25, Notre Dame beat Georgia (23-10) in the Sugar Bowl and then knocked off Penn State (27-24) in the Orange Bowl to advance to the national title game.
Notre Dame has never played in the Peach Bowl, but jere is a look at Notre Dame's history in the other four major bowl games:
COTTON BOWL
The Irish are 5-3 all-time in the Cotton Bowl. Notre Dame has a long and great history in the Cotton Bowl, although their most recent game was a loss. The Irish are 2-1 against the No. 1 ranked team, which ironically was Texas in each game. The 38-10 win over then No. 1 Texas at the end of the 1977 season resulted in No. 5 Notre Dame jumping up to No. 1, giving the program their 10th national championship. The 2018 game against Clemson was a semi-final game in the playoff that season.
1970 - vs. #1 Texas (Lost 21-17)
1971 - vs. #1 Texas (Won 24-11)
1978 - vs. #1 Texas (Won 38-10)
1979 - vs. #9 Houston (Won 35-34)
1988 - vs. #13 Texas A&M (Lost 35-10)
1993 - vs. #4 Texas A&M (Won 28-3)
1994 - vs. #7 Texas A&M (Won 24-21)
2018 - vs. #2 Clemson (Lost 30-3)
ORANGE BOWL
The Irish are 3-3 all-time in the Orange Bowl. The No. 9-ranked Notre Dame team of 1974 beat No. 1 Alabama at the end of the 1974 season. The Crimson Tide went 22-2 during the 1972 and 1973 seasons, with their only two losses coming to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl (1972) and Orange Bowl (1973). The Irish smacked No. 1 Colorado at the end of the 1989 season, but the Buffaloes won the rematch a year later when the Irish had a late Raghib Ismail punt return touchdown overturned due to a questionable penalty. Notre Dame's semi-final win over Penn State last season ended a two-game Orange Bowl losing streak.
1973 - vs. #9 Nebraska (Lost 40-6)
1975 - vs. #2 Alabama (Won 13-11)
1990 - vs. #1 Colorado (Won 21-6)
1991 - vs. #1 Colorado (Lost 10-9)
1996 - vs. #8 Florida State (Lost 31-26)
2025 - vs. #4 Penn State (Won 27-24)
FIESTA BOWL
The Irish are 1-5 all-time in the Fiesta Bowl. Of course, the first win was important, as the victory over the No. 3 Mountaineers resulted in the program's 12th, and most recent, national championship. The Irish were underdogs in every game between then and the most recent matchup against Oklahoma State. Notre Dame jumped out to a 28-7 lead in the matchup against the Cowboys, but they ultimately lost the game, which was the first of the Marcus Freeman era.
1989 - vs. #3 West Virginia (Won 34-21)
1995 - vs. #4 Colorado (Lost 41-24)
2001 - vs. #5 Oregon State (Lost 41-9)
2006 - vs. #4 Ohio State (Lost 34-20)
2016 - vs. #7 Ohio State (Lost 44-28)
2022 - vs. #9 Oklahoma State (Lost 37-35)
ROSE BOWL
The Irish are 1-1 all-time in the Rose Bowl, although only the win over Stanford in 1925 was played in the iconic Rose Bowl Stadium. The game in 2021 was played in Arlington, Texas due to Covid restrictions in California.
1925 - vs. Stanford (Won 27-10)
2021 - vs. #1 Alabama (Lost 31-14)(Played in Arlington, Texas)
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