Carter Bahns of 247Sports ranked Notre Dame at Miami to begin the season 16th in his "College Football Playoff: Top 25 games set to define 2025 national championship race." The winner of Notre Dame at Miami will have a huge victory on their resume more than three months later when the CFP berths are awarded.
Miami was unable to use a win at Florida in the 2024 season-opener to earn a CFP berth. Notre Dame used their win at Texas A&M in the 2024 season-opener to a CFP berth and eventually became the national runner-up to Ohio State. Notre Dame finished the 2024 season 14-2 with a regular season loss to Northern Illinois.
Notre Dame is a consensus way-to-early 2025 Top 10 team. Miami is a consensus 2025 way-too-early Top 25 squad. The FanDuel Sportsbook has Notre Dame as a 2.5-point favorite against Miami. Notre Dame is -128 on the moneyline, with Miami +106 and the over/under at 53.5 points.
There is always a lot of anticipation and buzz when Miami plays Notre Dame. Carson Beck and Miami will have to be ready in the opener to play and not ease into the season. Beck had experience playing a big game in the 2024 season opener for Georgia when the Bulldogs beat Clemson 38-3 in Atlanta.
“Last time we played ‘em … they were top 5 in the country and we beat ‘em 41-8.”@MarkRicht can’t wait for Notre Dame at Miami Week 1 🙌 pic.twitter.com/GnVPWtBXdZ
— ACC Network (@accnetwork) January 29, 2025
"Notre Dame made Marcus Freeman one of the highest-paid coaches in the sport with this offseason's contract extension. He proved deserving when he took the Fighting Irish to the 2024 CFP national title game, and an opportunity arises next season to break through fully with a championship. In order to get back to the playoff, though, Freeman's team has to get through a couple of stiff regular-season tests, like the one at Miami to open the campaign."Carter Bahns, 247Sports
Marcus Freeman against Mario Cristobal is a marquee coaching matchup. Both coaches have been maligned in their careers. In addition to the 2024 loss to Northern Illinois, Notre Dame had losses to Stanford and Marshall during Freeman's first season in 2022.
Cristobal and Freeman are both entering their fourth seasons at their programs. Freeman has been lauded now for taking Notre Dame to the CFP championship game. After two mediocre seasons, Cristobal led Miami to a 10-3 2024 season, but the focus was on the Hurricanes losing three of their last four games.
Miami and Notre Dame have two of the most difficult early-season schedules. Miami hosts Florida three weeks after playing Notre Dame. After a bye week following the game at Miami, Notre Dame hosts Texas A&M on Sept. 13. Miami also has a tough game at SMU on Nov. 1. Notre Dame is also at Arkansas on Sept. 27.
Miami plays a return game at Notre Dame in 2026 and is in South Bend in 2028 and 2031. With seven games between Miami and Notre Dame in the next 13 seasons, the rivalry should begin to heat up again. The annual games between Miami and Notre Dame in the 1980s through 1990 were one of the marquee contests in college football.