Back in February, I published “Was Notre Dame’s Win Gift-Wrapped by a Midnight Prank? NC State’s Fire Alarm Fiasco Raises This Writer’s Eyebrows” right after the Wolfpack’s 79-67 loss to the Irish on February 15-16, 2026. The piece highlighted the 1:15-1:30 a.m. fire alarm at the team’s hotel in South Bend, which forced players and staff out into the freezing cold for about five minutes before hotel staff called it a “non-fire issue” and sent everyone back to bed. No police were mentioned at the time, and the timing felt suspiciously convenient for a young team already grinding through a tough ACC schedule.
I wondered aloud whether this was just a random false alarm or something more deliberate, a possible “home-field advantage” prank in the long tradition of sneaky sabotage stories in college sports. Players and coaches were rattled, the team looked flat the next day (22 turnovers, dominated on the glass and in transition), and I promised to keep digging. I did just that.
Fast-forward to now: I filed an Indiana Access to Public Records Act (APRA) request on February 17, 2026, specifically asking for any police or fire department records related to the incident at those exact hotel locations on February 15, 2026.
A quick note on the locations: The Inn at Saint Mary’s and/or Embassy Suites by Hilton – South Bend at Notre Dame were my best educated guess as the possible sites where the Pack was staying. This was based on the history of visiting teams using these properties. I did try to confirm the exact hotel from a non-team member I knew who attended the game, but was unable to get definitive information. Therefore, I had to use these likely sites when submitting the APRA request.
On April 9, 2026 – roughly two months later – I received the attached response from the City of South Bend Department of Law (signed by Assistant City Attorney Kylie Connell, reference AR26-0360). Here’s the key language:
“Your public records request received on February 17, 2026, regarding records for: date of incident: 02.15.2026 and Location: The Inn at Saint Mary’s and/or Embassy Suites by Hilton -South Bend at Notre Dame has been referred to me. The City of South Bend’s Police Department does not have any records responsive to your request.”
The accompanying email explicitly added that the South Bend Fire Department also had no responsive records.
You can read the full letter below. What does this mean for the story?
- No official paper trail whatsoever. Neither the police nor the fire department logged, responded to, or investigated anything at the hotel that night. This lines up exactly with what was reported in real time: hotel staff handled it internally and cleared it quickly.
- A two-month turnaround isn’t shocking under Indiana’s APRA rules (agencies only have to acknowledge promptly and then produce records in a “reasonable” time, which can stretch depending on volume and coordination between departments). Still, it underscores how low-key the whole episode stayed on the official side.
- The absence of records doesn’t prove a prank, but it also doesn’t dispel the suspicion. If someone pulled the alarm as a stunt (whether a rogue fan, inside job, or malfunction), it was executed in a way that never escalated beyond the front desk. No 911 call. No fire trucks. No incident report. Just a bunch of sleepy college athletes standing in the cold at 1:30 a.m. before the biggest road game of the stretch.
Head coach Wes Moore said postgame he “couldn’t explain” the flat performance and that the team “didn’t compete hard enough,” while acknowledging they had to “overcome that stuff.” Announcers on the broadcast noted how startled everyone was. Science backs up the sleep-disruption angle, especially for young adults on the road.
Bottom line: The midnight alarm remains a strange footnote in NC State’s 2025-26 season. The lack of any official response from South Bend authorities keeps the “prank” theory alive in my mind, even if we’ll probably never get definitive proof. Hotel security footage (if it even exists) would be the next logical place to look, but that’s outside public records jurisdiction.
I’ll keep an eye on this and any similar oddities that pop up in future road trips. In the meantime, credit to the Wolfpack for battling through the rest of the season despite whatever happened that night in South Bend. These young women are tough and they deserve every fair shot on the road.
Jerry Cornwell
PackWBB.com
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