One of the biggest stories of the 2025-2026 college football offseason was the collapse of the historic USC Trojans-Notre Dame Fighting Irish rivalry.
Long hailed as the “Greatest Intersectional Rivalry in College Football,” the game paired two of the sport’s most storied teams. Played every season since 1926, outside World War II and the COVID lockdown years, both fanbases loved the annual tradition and opportunity to travel to historic stadiums in LA and South Bend.
Which is why the reaction to news that the series was ending, even if temporarily, was overwhelmingly one of frustration and disappointment. From both sides.
Who to blame for the end of the series mostly depends on allegiance. Much of the disagreement between the two sides came down to timing. USC fans point to comments made by Irish head coach Marcus Freeman in 2025 about the rivalry and his commitment to it.
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“It’s pretty black and white for me,” Freeman said at the time. “You want my opinion? I want to play them every single year. When? I don’t care. I don’t care when we play them. Start of the season, middle of the season, end of the season — I don’t care. I want to play USC every year because it’s great for college football.”
Those comments resurfaced when the series was cancelled in large part because Notre Dame didn’t want to move the game to Week 0 from its traditional spot in either October or November. USC head coach Lincoln Riley brought that up as well, saying at the end of the season, “The fact is very, very clear, and this can all be settled very quickly — had Notre Dame lived up to their word and played us anytime, anywhere, we would be playing them the next two years and looking ahead after that and hopefully continuing the series. They did not follow through on it. Thus, we are not playing them the next couple years.”
Notre Dame fans would counter that USC joined the Big Ten Conference and they shouldn’t have to make accommodations for the Trojans’ new travel schedule and conference affiliation. While both sides expressed their intention to keep negotiating, it seemed like priorities had shifted. Notre Dame, with their new arrangement with the College Football Playoff guaranteeing them a spot if they finish in the top 12 in the final poll of the season, lined up a much easier schedule in 2026. USC, facing a pivotal year for Riley and the program, and an already brutal schedule on tap, replaced the Irish with San Jose State.
But a new report from the Los Angeles Times on Monday says the two sides have renewed talks to restart the rivalry. Though with one disappointing caveat.
Ryan Kartje reported that while “it’s not clear yet when the rivalry series will return or what the terms will be,” both sides are back at the table. Importantly, the Irish are now, per Kartje, “willing to discuss playing the game earlier in the season.”
That source was now “optimistic a deal could be reached,” though the earliest timeline to restart the game would likely be 2030.
It was always likely that Notre Dame would compromise on timing because, to put it simply, the Irish need the game more than USC does. The Trojans are now in a super conference. The conference that’s won three straight national championships. Their schedule in 2026 is already extremely difficult, with road games at Penn State, Wisconsin, and defending national champion Indiana, plus home games against Ohio State, Oregon, and Washington. Not to mention playing the UCLA rivalry game on the “road” at the Rose Bowl.
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Three playoff teams, the defending champs, and road games in extremely tough environments at Wisconsin and Penn State. Oh, and Washington, the 13th best team in the country last year, according to analytics-based ranking system SP+. Had the Notre Dame game continued in 2026, SC would have played four of the top five teams in the country last season, per SP+. Then, if they somehow got through that gauntlet to finish in the top two spots in the conference, they’d be rewarded by playing another top-5 team in the Big Ten Championship game.
Point being, USC can reach the playoff at 10-2 without the Irish on their schedule. But Notre Dame, as an independent, has no championship game or rigorous conference schedule to point to. As such, they need more opportunities for big wins to bolster their resume. Or they could risk falling out of the top 12 in some seasons due to weaker perceived schedules relative to Big Ten or SEC rivals.
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USC reportedly offered to continue the series as it traditionally had been played for 2026-2027, before moving to Week 0 down the road. The Irish balked, then SC pulled the offer anyway after finding out about Notre Dame’s unique arrangement with the playoff committee and believing it provided a significant advantage.
The Trojans’ other argument, that non-conference games are traditionally played earlier in the season in the Big Ten, had some merit too. And it now seems like the Irish are willing to revisit that timeframe. That’s good news for fans of both schools, as well as fans of the sport concerned that marquee matchups will become a thing of the past. The only bad news? That we’ll have to wait four long years for the next game.
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