Lambeau clash, Dublin opener headline college football's Week 0 and Week 1

College football's 2026 season gets underway this weekend with a pair of marquee matchups bookending Week 0 and Week 1: TCU and North Carolina square off in Dublin, Ireland on Aug. 29, and Wisconsin welcomes No. 4 Notre Dame to Lambeau Field on Sept. 6 at 7:30 p.m. ET.

The Dublin game gives TCU an international stage for its season opener, three days after the program's countdown-to-kickoff coverage highlighted former Horned Frogs wide receiver Savion Williams and linebacker Kaleb Elarms-Orr. Williams, a five-year TCU pass-catcher who finished with 1,655 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns, was taken by the Green Bay Packers in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft. Elarms-Orr, who earned All-Big 12 First Team honors in 2025 after recording 130 tackles, 11 tackles for loss and four sacks, was selected by the Buffalo Bills in the fourth round of the 2026 NFL Draft.

Notre Dame, Wisconsin Set for Historic Lambeau Showdown

The Wisconsin-Notre Dame matchup at Lambeau Field has drawn considerable national attention heading into the new season. Notre Dame enters ranked fourth in the preseason AP Poll, carrying extra motivation after the program believes it was denied a College Football Playoff berth following a 10-2 campaign in 2025 — a season that ended without a bowl game appearance.

Notre Dame's independent status and long-standing individual television deal have kept the Irish in a league of their own when it comes to college football's power structure — a dynamic that ESPN's Ryan McGee addressed by placing Notre Dame among college football's greatest supervillains.

From their continued life as a nonconference football independent that still plays sort of an ACC schedule to having their own personal television contract for the last few decades and their continued status as a lone wolf in the College Football Playoff selection room, Notre Dame has long wielded exclusive powers. And as much as the Irish's fanbase has relished the role, all other fanbases hate them for it.

— Ryan McGee, ESPN

Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt has Notre Dame going further than just beating Wisconsin to open the year. In a prediction released Tuesday on The Joel Klatt Show podcast, Klatt tabbed the Irish as the second seed in the 2027 CFP, forecasting wins over seventh-seeded Georgia in the quarterfinals, third-seeded Miami in the semifinals, and top-seeded Oregon in the national championship game — which would be Notre Dame's first title in nearly 40 years. Wisconsin, under head coach Luke Fickell, will look to spoil that trajectory when the two programs meet at the historic NFL venue on the opening weekend of September.