Why does Notre Dame have two bye weeks? How Week 0 game in Dublin led to extra time off (2024)

Notre Dame fans hoping to tune in and watch the 20th=ranked Fighting Irish (7-3) play a football game on Saturday may be confused to find them out of action.

Marcus Freeman and Co. will have a bye in Week 11 before gearing up to conclude their season with a two-game stretch vs. Wake Forest and Stanford. Fans would be forgiven for their confusion at the seemingly random time off, especially considering Notre Dame already had a bye in Week 8, following a 48-20 thumping of rival USC.

Typically, college football teams have only one bye in a 13-game regular season. But Notre Dame's international Week 0 game to start the 2023 college football season has allowed the Fighting Irish to take a rare second bye as it aims to finish its season strong.

Here's everything you need to know about Notre Dame's bye in Week 11, and how the Fighting Irish's Navy game in Dublin led to it:

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Why does Notre Dame have two bye weeks?

Notre Dame will have a second bye week thanks to NCAA rules that mandate an extra five days off per season in the event a team plays before Labor Day (i.e., a Week 0 game).

Normally, NCAA Rule 17.11.4 prohibits teams from playing a football game prior to the Thursday before Labor Day (Aug. 31 for the 2023 season). However, Notre Dame used an exception to the rule to play Navy on Aug. 26. Because the game was played on foreign soil (it took place in Dublin), the Fighting Irish were allowed to compete in the Week 0 game. That mandated the team must have an extra week off to make up for the early start.

Per NCAA bylaw 17.11.4.3 (Exception — In-Season Foreign Competition):

"An institution that is scheduled to play a regular-season game in a foreign country may play its first permissible contest with outside competition on the Saturday prior to the Thursday preceding Labor Day. An institution that uses this exception must provide its student-athletes with five additional days off from all countable athletically related activities during the institution's declared playing season."

Hence, Notre Dame will have a second bye week, something that is made easier for the team to manage considering its independent status.

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Notre Dame football schedule 2023

Following its bye week, Notre Dame will return to action vs. the Demon Deacons in Week 12 before concluding its season with the Cardinal on Nov. 25. The Fighting Irish must win both of those games, plus its bowl, to reach 10 wins for the first time under Freeman.