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…