Irish Breakdown tackles the 2026 schedule, CFP format, and Jaden Greathouse's prime position in this fan-favorite mail bag.
Another week of the offseason has come to an end and with every week, there was definitely some news to cover. Notre Dame finalized their schedule for the 2026 football season. They'll begin their journey to the post season on the road against Wisconsin in the Shamrock Series inside of Lambeau Field and will end in New York against Syracuse. In between, the Irish will square off with BYU in Provo, Utah and the Miami Hurricanes inside of Notre Dame Stadium.
It was also announced today that the format for the College Football Playoffs in 2026 will remain at 12-teams. Despite on-going negotiations, an agreement couldn't be made on 16 teams. For Notre Dame, the MOU will still be in effect as long as they rank inside of the Top 12. We covered both of these topics and, of course, had our Friday Free-For-All mail bag to wrap everything up.
You can watch the entire show here:
Here are some of the topics and questions we discussed on today's show:
On Jaden Greathouse's Best Position...
"Coming out of high school, I liked him outside. I thought his contested catch skills would have been good there. I think he can still win on the outside as well. I think he could play out there and I think Jordan Faison plays best in the slot. There hasn't been anything from Notre Dame to let us know they're going to do that. I'm hoping they play 'position-less football' when it comes to the field. You have a bunch of different skillsets that fit outside of the boundary. We've been arguing that for two years. Be more willing to move more guys around to prevent the defense from keying on certain players."
On USC Not Being On The 2026 Schedule...
"If it would have came out of no where, I would have felt differently about USC not being on the schedule. It's definitely strange not seeing USC on it; they've been on it, with the exception of 2020, of my lifetime. I'm not upset that they're not on the schedule, but it's strange looking at it and knowing that there won't be a battle for the Jeweled Shillelagh this upcoming season."
On What School With A Newly-Hired Head Coach Will See The Greatest Improvement...
"Record wise, I think it's going to be Virginia Tech but visually, it's going to be LSU. There's a world where LSU has the same record but it looks a lot better on offense than what they were doing last year. Penn State is going to look the same; it's going to be some ugly football. Record wise, I think it's Virginia Tech or Florida but visually LSU is going to take a massive step forward in 2026."
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