No. 2 Notre Dame Comes to Provo for First-Ever Top-10 Game at LaVell Edwards Stadium

It started with a text message. Last October, BYU athletic director Brian Santiago was hunting for a power-conference opponent after losing a two-game series with California, and someone in a scheduling conversation brought up Notre Dame. Santiago reached for his phone and sent a text to Ryan Sweeney — a Notre Dame graduate and partner of BYU booster Ryan Smith — asking Sweeney to put him in touch with Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua. The next day, they were on the phone.

Everyone in the world of college football knows filling a game a year out is super difficult. We're scheduled out for years to come so we were going through a little schedule model.— Brian Santiago, BYU Athletic Director

The result of that call — and a chain of events that ran through a bowl game withdrawal, a wave of national backlash, and a collapsed USC scheduling deal — is Saturday night's game: No. 2 Notre Dame at No. 8 BYU, 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC, from LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo. It is the first time two top-10 teams have ever met in Provo, and the highest-ranked opponent to visit LaVell Edwards Stadium since No. 1 USC in 2004, according to BYU's athletic department.

Both programs enter undefeated. Notre Dame is 6-0 after a 58-7 demolition of Stanford in Week 6, leading 37-0 at halftime. According to Fox Sports, freshman running back Jonaz Walton carried the ball 13 times for 181 yards and two touchdowns, one of them a 97-yard run, while quarterback CJ Carr completed 14 of 20 passes for 181 yards and three scores. Coming off a 24-10 victory over Iowa State, BYU stands at 5-0 thanks in part to quarterback Bear Bachmeier, who set a season high with 329 passing yards and two touchdown throws and chipped in 109 rushing yards — all of it accomplished without starting running back LJ Martin, who faces a four-to-six-week absence because of a lower-body injury.

Notre Dame enters as a 12.5-point favorite, with a point total of 49.5 and a moneyline of -521 for the Irish and +390 for the Cougars, according to Fox Sports. It marks the first time this season BYU has been an underdog.

The backstory of how this game came together runs deeper than one text. When Notre Dame's rivalry game against USC remained in limbo, a scheduling window opened. Santiago's initial call with Bevacqua was cordial but inconclusive — Notre Dame felt it could still resolve the USC situation. Two months later, both programs were left out of the College Football Playoff. They were on track to meet in the Pop-Tarts Bowl before Notre Dame pulled out. As national backlash mounted over that decision, Santiago sent Bevacqua a message of support. Soon, Santiago got a call back, according to CBS Sports.

Who knows, maybe there was a little divine intervention.— Brian Santiago, BYU Athletic Director

The scheduling history between the two programs is long and, from BYU's perspective, often frustrating. The schools signed a six-game scheduling agreement in 2011, but when Notre Dame entered a partnership with the ACC, it squeezed the Irish's schedule. In order to get any game on the books at all, BYU gave up its home date, accepted a neutral site in Las Vegas in 2022, and even let Notre Dame function as the 'home' team with a larger ticket allotment. Notre Dame won that Shamrock Series game 28-20. It was the fourth consecutive BYU-Notre Dame game played away from Provo.

Our fans were very disappointed. Notre Dame was great, they were great to work with, but they have objectives just like everybody does. That was the best that we could work out with still being able to play.— Dallan Moody, BYU Senior Athletic Director

Saturday is the first time Notre Dame has come to Provo since 2004, when BYU won 20-17 in the season opener. Notre Dame leads the all-time series 7-2, according to BYU's athletic department. The most recent BYU win in the series came in 1994, when current head coach Kalani Sitake was a freshman running back.

The reaction, the class they had standing up and clapping for the team and for us as we walked off the field, I've never seen anything like that. That left a huge impression on me as an 18-year-old. I had a whole different respect for Notre Dame after that game.— Kalani Sitake, BYU Head Coach

The stakes extend well beyond tradition. Over the past three seasons, BYU is 28-4 — trailing only Indiana and Notre Dame, both of which played for national championships during that span, according to CBS Sports. In each of those two years, the Cougars did not receive a College Football Playoff bid. A win Saturday would go a long way toward changing that calculus: it would effectively cement BYU as the Big 12 favorite and put the Cougars firmly in the playoff picture. Notre Dame, averaging 44.0 points per game and winners of 16 consecutive games, is similarly motivated as it pursues a return to the national title conversation.

Iconic moments are what it's often all about. They just punctuate and emphasize the trajectory that you're on. If BYU comes and beats Notre Dame this weekend, that becomes part of the lore of BYU.— Dallan Moody, BYU Senior Athletic Director

The game will be preceded by ESPN's College GameDay, which originates from BYU's campus from 7 to 10 a.m. MT — only the second time the show has broadcast from Provo, with the first coming on October 24, 2009. The set will feature host Rece Davis joined by analysts Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee and Nick Saban. The game itself will be called by Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Holly Rowe, and is also designated as ESPN's 4K Game of the Week, according to ESPN's press room. An immersive 180-degree viewing experience will be available on Meta Quest via the TV App.

The game is also part of a broader Week 7 slate on ESPN networks that includes No. 1 Georgia hosting Auburn, No. 6 Alabama at No. 14 Tennessee, No. 7 Texas hosting Florida, and No. 3 Miami hosting Florida State, among 84 games across five days, according to ESPN's press room.

Why it matters — A BYU win would be the program's biggest in decades and would likely punch the Cougars into the College Football Playoff picture; a Notre Dame win keeps the Irish on a national title track — making this a genuine crossroads moment for both programs.

Sources differ on Notre Dame's AP ranking heading into the Oct. 17 game: No. 2 (foxsports.com / espnpressroom.com / yahoo.com / cbssports.com / deseret.com) vs No. 3 (byucougars.com)

Reported by yahoo.com, cbssports.com, deseret.com, foxsports.com, espnpressroom.com, byucougars.com