Purdue hosts Notre Dame. Too early for a market line, but the model likes Notre Dame (95%).
What’s at stake
Purdue
- Purdue hasn’t beaten a ranked opponent since 2022.
Notre Dame
- A win puts Notre Dame a step closer to a 68% shot at the CFP field.
- Notre Dame is a program that knows what it is, and still asks the question.
The series
Notre Dame leads the series 61-26-2
89 meetings since 1896 · Notre Dame has won the last 10
- 2025Notre Dame 56–30
- 2024Notre Dame 66–7
- 2021Notre Dame 27–13
- 2014 · neutral siteNotre Dame 30–14
- 2013Notre Dame 31–24
Face-off
What each fanbase carries into this one.
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.
Purdue
The chip · vs big brotherIndiana spent a century as the easy in-state laughingstock — until the Hoosiers surged and Purdue cratered, and the Old Oaken Bucket started living on the wrong side of West Lafayette. The fanbase wants the rivalry's natural order restored before it becomes a permanent humbling.
What this game touches
Back-to-back two-win bottom. Purdue went 1-11 in 2024 and fired Ryan Walters, then hired Barry Odom from UNLV — and the first rebuild year produced another 2-10 (0-9 Big Ten), the program's two wins coming over Ball State and an FCS opponent. Two straight winless conference seasons left a once-respectable Big Ten program scraping the floor.
Best players
Purdue
- Mani Powell (LB) · 2025: 110 tackles
- Tahj Ra-El (DB) · 2025: 110 tackles
- Charles Correa (LB) · 2025: 77 tackles
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: 120th (+50000)
The line, and the room
Purdue fans are feeling better about their season (57th percentile) than Notre Dame fans are (15th) — even with Notre Dame favored here.
Conditions
Purdue is 42% at home, 33% on the road since 2018 (21-29 home, 13-26 away).