Notre Dame (#4) hosts Wisconsin. The market has Notre Dame (#4) favored by 20.5.
What’s at stake
Notre Dame
- Notre Dame sits at 68% to make the CFP field — 70% with a win here, 51% with a loss.
- Notre Dame is a program that knows what it is, and still asks the question.
Wisconsin
- A win would be one of Wisconsin’s biggest of the season — a 84-spot gap in the power ratings.
The series
Notre Dame leads the series 9-6-2
17 meetings since 1900 · Notre Dame has won the last 2
- 2021 · neutral siteNotre Dame 41–13
- 1964Notre Dame 31–7
- 1963Wisconsin 14–9
- 1962Wisconsin 17–8
- 1944Notre Dame 28–13
Face-off
What each fanbase carries into this one.
Wisconsin
The chip · vs the national mediaFans heard it for years — that the program was a throwback that couldn't keep up, too plodding for the modern game, a system that printed yards against everyone but the playoff teams. Wisconsin always answered by running it down their throats anyway, which is exactly the answer the 2025 team couldn't give.
What this game touches
The 2025 collapse and the identity that went with it. Wisconsin finished 4-8 (2-7 Big Ten) in Luke Fickell's third year, dropping six straight in the middle of the schedule and getting shut out 37-0 by Iowa. Quarterback injuries forced four passers onto the field behind a remade scheme — the running-game program now searching for any identity at all, on the program's worst footing in a generation.
Notre Dame
The chip · vs the committeeThe fanbase's read is simple and bitter: ten straight wins were worth less than a Week 1 result the committee chose to weight, and a program with no conference title to wave gets judged on a standard the leagues never have to meet. They say the snub wasn't an accident — it was the price of going it alone.
What this game touches
The 2025 Playoff snub. Notre Dame opened 0-2, then won ten straight — many in routs, including a home win over a ranked USC — and finished No. 11 at 10-2. The committee gave the final at-large bid to Miami on the head-to-head from the Week 1 opener; Notre Dame declined a non-Playoff bowl rather than treat the leftover as a reward.
Best players
Notre Dame
- C.J. Carr (QB) · 2025: 2,741 passing yards
- Drayk Bowen (LB) · 2025: 67 tackles
- Jordan Faison (WR) · 2025: 640 receiving yards — Heisman odds: 123rd (+50000)
Wisconsin
- Mason Posa (LB) · 2025: 57 tackles
- Cooper Catalano (LB) · 2025: 56 tackles
- Matthew Jung (S) · 2025: 49 tackles
The line, and the room
Notre Dame fans are feeling it more than most fanbases this week (16th percentile) — the mood matches the numbers.
- Model · 95%
- Market · 95%
- Notre Dame fans · 16th
- Wisconsin fans · 6th
Home −20.5 · O/U 46.5
Conditions
75°F · 6 mph wind · Cloudy