After more than a year of back-and-forth squabbling, Notre Dame-USC, often called college football’s greatest intersectional rivalry, came off the books.
And now it’s back. The two schools announced Monday that they will resume the series in 2030.
The four-year agreement, which coincides with a cancelled home-and-home series with reigning national champion Indiana, will begin on opening weekend of the 2030 season at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
The rapid changes in college football’s postseason structure, punctuated by the advent of the 12-team College Football Playoff in 2024, have prompted debates among the sport’s premier programs regarding the value of high-profile regular season matchups.
USC, which joined the expansive 18-team Big Ten in 2024, expressed concerns about traveling to South Bend on top of its already grueling conference schedule, as well as fears that further late-season defeats at the hands of the Irish could hinder the program’s ability to compete for postseason play.
The Trojans proposed moving the annual battle for the storied Jeweled Shillelagh to earlier in the season starting in the upcoming fall of 2026.
One such offer reportedly involved a neutral-site Week 0 contest to be streamed exclusively on Netflix. After the Irish refused to acquiesce to the Trojans’ demands, the Irish opted to schedule a two-year series with BYU starting this fall.
The announcement seemingly spelled doom for an uninterrupted rivalry with the Trojans, and sparked claims from USC fans that Notre Dame didn’t prioritize the contest.
USC athletic director Jen Cohen and her counterpart at Notre Dame, Pete Bevacqua, pushed to resume the series by 2030 as soon as a 2026 game failed to materialize.
The agreement, which sees the programs square off in Week 1 in both 2030 and 2031, and within the first three weeks of the following two seasons, seems to align with what USC head coach Lincoln Riley craved when dialogue surrounding the series intensified last year.
However, Notre Dame was unable to provide the requisite opening early in the 2026 and 2027 seasons, as games with Wisconsin and Purdue had already been scheduled.
Both programs took heat from the media, fans and alumni after the annual meeting was cancelled.
The rivalry, which began when Knute Rockne’s 1926 squad crossed the country by train and earned a 13-12 victory. The rivalry has evolved into one of the game’s most historic, and heated, showdowns.
Notre Dame controlled the series in the 1980s, including in 1988, when No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown became a 27-10 victory and propelled the Irish to their most recent national championship.
At the turn of the century, USC enjoyed its own decade of dominance. The memorable “Bush Push” game in 2005 allowed USC to extend its 28-game winning streak in pursuit of a third consecutive title.
“USC’s historic rivalry with Notre Dame holds a special place in the history of college football, and we are happy to resume a series that means so much to the entire Trojan Family,” Cohen stated. “It remains important for us to play this game early in the season, as it allows us to schedule competitively with our Big Ten peers and takes into account the health and best interests of our student-athletes and program. We are excited for our fans, and we look forward to more memorable matchups and unforgettable games between the Trojans and the Irish.”
Riley, whose program replaced the rivalry this fall with a Week 0 contest against San Jose State, continued to shift blame for the hiatus to Notre Dame.
“We’re part of a conference. We have a conference schedule to answer to. We don‘t choose our own kickoff times,” Riley said. “I just wanted it to make sense for our team in terms of playing the rest of the Big Ten and Big Ten team travel. And again, we just don’t have the same flexibility in our schedule. It is what it is.”
The Irish own a 51-37-5 record against the Trojans all-time, including an 8-2 mark across the previous 10 meetings.
The two programs have combined to claim 22 national championships and 15 Heisman Trophies, the most of any rivals in college football. Notre Dame won last season’s contest 34-24 on a rainy October evening in South Bend, leaving the Trojans winless over the past three years.
Head coach Marcus Freeman, who has previously stated that Notre Dame would be willing to face USC “anytime, anywhere,” was not quoted in Monday’s press release.
While fans may be excited for the renewal of such an intense rivalry, it comes at the cost of the much-anticipated in-state showdown between the Irish and the Hoosiers. The 2026 meeting would have been the first regular-season matchup between the two programs since 1991.
The cancellation comes at Indiana’s request, removing the last out-of-conference power opponent from the Hoosiers’ future schedules.
Since head coach Curt Cignetti took over in Bloomington, Indiana, the Hoosiers have adopted a strategy to avoid playing high-profile non-conference matchups, instead filling the early-season schedule with the likes of Indiana State, Delaware and UConn.
The Hoosiers’ last loss prior to winning the 2025 national championship was a 27-17 thrashing in South Bend during the First Round of the 2024 Playoff.
