EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — A typical college football regular season is 12 games, with most top programs figuring out a way to have seven home games.

But Jack Swarbrick, Notre Dame’s athletic director, deserves some kind of medal — perhaps it is time for a Nobel Prize in Mathematics — for the scheduling feat he pulled off this season, in which Notre Dame will play only three games on an opponent’s home field.

The scheduling quirk coincided with the season in which Notre Dame, which has long maintained its independent status in football, begins its quasi membership in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Fighting Irish met their first A.C.C. opponent of the season Saturday night, facing Syracuse at MetLife Stadium, home of the Giants and the Jets. The Orange were officially the home team.

Notre Dame improved to 4-0 with a 31-15 victory. Quarterback Everett Golson had a good outing despite several turnovers, including a botched attempt to down the ball near the goal line and a fourth-quarter interception that was returned for a touchdown. Helped by a game plan heavy on screen and swing passes, Golson at one stretch completed 25 straight passes, one short of the Football Bowl Subdivision single-game record, according to The Associated Press. He finished with four touchdown passes and a career-high 362 yards, but summed up his play as “sloppy.”