Notre Dame, Wisconsin Lambeau Field Game Oozes History

Notre Dame will face Wisconsin at Lambeau Field in a historic college football matchup in 2026.

Notre Dame players celebrate after a quarterfinal game against Georgia in the College Football Playoff in New Orleans on Jan. 2, 2025. Gerald Herbert/AP Photo

After a five-year wait, Notre Dame against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field in Green Bay is cemented on the calendar.

The two schools announced the Sept. 6, 2026, game on Wednesday as part of the Fighting Irish’s Shamrock Series games. Notre Dame and Wisconsin were originally slated to play in October 2020, but that game got postponed due to COVID-19 concerns. The game was previously rescheduled for Sept. 5, 2026.

In 2020, the Big Ten was one of the last two Power Five conferences to restart play that season after other leagues gradually returned to action. Notre Dame played in the ACC that year and played a full schedule.

The Fighting Irish and Badgers have played 17 times, and Notre Dame leads the all-time series 9–6–2. They last met in 2021 as the Irish won 41–13 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

Before 2021, the Notre Dame-Wisconsin series had been largely dormant. The Badgers and Irish met twice in the 1960s and regularly between 1924 and 1944.

For Notre Dame, Lambeau Field is a fitting place to play. The stadium is named after late former Irish player Curly Lambeau, who played in 1918 before his storied career with the Green Bay Packers.

Lambeau founded the Packers in 1919 but also played for the team for 10 seasons. He coached and played for the first Packers NFL championship team in 1929.

Lambeau Field last hosted a college football game in 2016 when the Badgers beat the LSU Tigers 16–14.

Besides college football, Lambeau Field has hosted an outdoor college hockey game between Wisconsin and Ohio State in 2006. The Badgers won that one 4–2 with 40,890 in attendance.

Lambeau Field has also played host to an international soccer friendly. Manchester City beat Bayern Munich 1–0 in the 2022 exhibition match with 78,128 fans in the stands.

Notre Dame’s latest stop for the Shamrock Series is the 13th game for the series that started in 2009. The Shamrock Series is for Notre Dame to play neutral-site home games across the country for its nationwide alumni and fan base.

Notre Dame beat Washington State 40–14 in the first Shamrock Series game in 2009 at San Antonio. The Fighting Irish’s other stops have included Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, and AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Big Ten Series Takes Ironic Twist

Notre Dame has a long history of playing Big Ten schools, although the conference has denied membership for the Irish twice. The Irish first got turned down in 1899 and 1926, and then Notre Dame’s board of trustees turned down the Big Ten in 1999.

Throughout the program’s history, Notre Dame has played significant series against Big Ten schools Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, and Purdue. The Irish have also played major non-conference games against Ohio State in recent years, which includes last season’s national championship game.

Notre Dame has remained independent throughout the program’s history, which has also allowed for other national rivalries, such as with USC. However, the USC series is in danger of ending, although the Trojans joined the Big Ten in 2024. USC has only extended the rivalry to 2026, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Trojans and Irish have played 95 times in the past 101 years, and only World War II and COVID-19 have interrupted the series.

“I would love to [continue the series]. I know it means a lot to a lot of people,” USC head coach Lincoln Riley told reporters during Big Ten media days in 2024.

“The purist in you, no doubt. Now, if you get in a position where you got to make a decision on what’s best for SC to help us win a national championship versus keeping that, shoot, then you got to look at it.

“And listen, we’re not the first example of that. Look all the way across the country. There has been a lot of other teams sacrificing rivalry games.

“And I’m not saying that’s what’s going to happen. But as we get into this playoff structure, and if it changes or not, we’re in this new conference, we’re going to learn something about this as we go and what the right and the best track is to winning a national championship, that’s going to evolve.”