No. 2 Notre Dame visits No. 8 BYU tonight in first top-10 game at LaVell Edwards Stadium

The college football season's first real test arrives tonight, Saturday, Oct. 17. No. 2 Notre Dame (6-0) travels to Provo, Utah, to face No. 8 BYU (5-0). Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC, with ESPN's College GameDay in town.

It will be the first top-10 game ever played at LaVell Edwards Stadium. It is also the first time in the series that both teams are ranked.

Two schedules, one real opponent

Neither team has been tested yet. According to ESPN's power index, as cited by the Associated Press, Notre Dame has played the nation's 63rd-toughest schedule and BYU the 86th.

The Irish have beaten Wisconsin, Rice, Michigan State, Purdue, North Carolina and Stanford. Their last two results were a 37-26 win at North Carolina on Oct. 3 and a 58-7 win over Stanford on Oct. 10. Notre Dame led Stanford 37-0 at halftime. Freshman running back Jonaz Walton ran for 181 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries, including a 97-yard score.

BYU has beaten Utah Tech, Arizona, Colorado State, TCU and Iowa State. The Cougars beat Iowa State 24-10 on Oct. 9 without running back LJ Martin, who is out four to six weeks with a lower-body injury.

One Outkick columnist is not buying Notre Dame's ranking. He wrote that the Irish have faced no ranked teams, and that only one game was remotely close, an 11-point win. He said he likes BYU at home to make it a game and thinks the Cougars' schedule has been tougher.

The quarterbacks

Notre Dame's CJ Carr has thrown for 1,378 yards and 16 touchdowns with one interception, completing 102 of 144 passes at 9.6 yards per attempt. This is his first game against a ranked opponent this season.

BYU's Bear Bachmeier has 12 touchdowns, eight passing and four rushing. Against Iowa State he threw for a season-high 329 yards and ran for 109 yards on nine carries. BYU's running backs managed only 21 yards in that game, so the Cougars are expected to lean on his legs again with Martin out.

The defenses stack up closely. Notre Dame leads the nation in total defense at 214.2 yards per game and allows 58.3 rushing yards per game. BYU allows 80.4 rushing yards per game, tenth nationally, and has 11 sacks in five games. Notre Dame has 15 sacks and seven interceptions in six games.

What the game means for the playoff

Both programs were left out of last year's 12-team College Football Playoff. Notre Dame missed out after winning 10 straight following losses by a combined four points to two ranked teams. BYU lost twice to Texas Tech, including the Big 12 championship game.

Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman welcomed the matchup. "You want to play against the best and you know this is going to be, on paper, the best opponent we're going to see, to date," he said. "I love it."

BYU coach Kalani Sitake said the Irish asked for the series. "Notre Dame they're the ones that reached out and wanted this game, and so it'd be crazy for us to turn it down," he said.

The series exists because of schedule trouble. Notre Dame could not agree on a date with USC, so BYU stepped in. BYU needed an opponent after California pulled out of a home-and-home when the ACC moved to a nine-game conference schedule. The Irish-Trojans rivalry is set to resume in 2030.

Numbers to watch

Notre Dame leads the all-time series 7-2. The Irish won the last meeting, 28-20, in Las Vegas in 2022. The last time Notre Dame came to Provo was 2004, when BYU won 20-17. This is the highest-ranked opponent BYU has hosted since No. 1 USC in 2004.

LaVell Edwards Stadium sits more than 4,600 feet above sea level. Notre Dame director of football performance Loren Landow spent six seasons as the Denver Broncos' head strength and conditioning coach, and the Irish will rely on his preparation if the game is close late.

The betting lines vary by book and have moved during the week. Notre Dame is favored by roughly 10.5 to 12.5 points. One report has the total opening at 54.5 and falling to 46.5, while another lists it at 49.5. Fox Sports lists the moneyline at -521 for Notre Dame and +390 for BYU.

What comes next

A BYU loss would not end its playoff chances, since the Cougars still have a full Big 12 schedule. Notre Dame has no conference title to fall back on. It has No. 3 Miami on Nov. 7 and SMU on Nov. 21, and its at-large case rests on how it handles those games, starting with tonight in Provo.