The sixth season of the Niele Ivey era for Notre Dame women’s basketball is upon us. The Fighting Irish released their 2025-26 season schedule on Tuesday.
It’s the second day of September. On the second to last day of October, the Irish will be in action at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend against Purdue Northwest for an exhibition. Notre Dame stays home the following week to begin the regular season at home against Fairleigh Dickinson.
Here is a full look at Notre Dame’s schedule.
Notre Dame women’s basketball 2025-26 regular season schedule
October
10/30: vs. Purdue Northwest (exhibition)
November
11/5: vs. Fairleigh Dickinson (season opener)
11/9: vs. Chicago State
11/12: vs. Akron
11/15: TBA
11/21: vs. Southern Cal
11/24: vs. Central Michigan
December
12/4: at Ole Miss
12/7: at Florida State
12/11: vs. Morehead State
12/14: at James Madison
12/21: vs. Bellarmine
12/29: vs. Pitt
January
1/1: at Georgia Tech
1/4: at Duke
1/8: vs. Boston College
1/11: vs. North Carolina
1/15: vs. Louisville
1/19: at UConn
1/22: vs. Miami
1/25: vs. Clemson
1/29: at Cal
February
2/1: at Stanford
2/5: vs. Virginia Tech
2/8: at Virginia
2/15: vs. NC State
2/19: at Wake Forest
2/22: at SMU
2/26: vs. Syracuse
March
3/1: at Louisville
Notes from Blue & Gold
• It’s likely whatever gets announced for the Nov. 15 time slot that’s currently listed as TBA is away from South Bend, so if that’s the case that’ll be a nice getaway in the middle of the month to break up what is otherwise a home-heavy start to the season for Notre Dame.
• The marquee matchup out of the gate is the Nov. 21 showdown against USC. The Irish knocked off the Trojans in Los Angeles around the same time last year. That was when USC had a healthy JuJu Watkins, though; Watkins tore her ACL in the NCAA Tournament this past spring. It would be a quick comeback if she’s able to play against Notre Dame at the end of November.
• Back-to-back road games at Ole Miss and Florida State will tell us a lot about the Irish early on as well. The Rebels have made it to the Sweet 16 in two of the last three seasons. The only year in that span in which they did not make it to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament was when Notre Dame beat them in the second round in 2024.
• We’ll obviously know more about what kind of ACC schedule Notre Dame is in for when teams put forth a track record in the opening stages of their respective seasons, but a mid-conference road swing of at Cal and at Stanford should be interesting for Ivey’s group.
