The Southern California-Notre Dame gridiron rivalry will resume in 2030, the schools announced on Monday.
The Trojans and Fighting Irish will not meet in 2026, temporarily halting end one of college football’s oldest and most historic series. After a lot of deliberation, USC and Notre Dame agreed to a four-year home-and-home deal starting in Week 1 in Los Angeles in 2030.
“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,” USC athletic director Jen Cohen said in a statement. “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.”
The series began in 1926, with the schools playing 95 times overall and every season since except three years during World War II and once in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Originally, the series fell apart with leaders at USC questioning if the series potentially only hurt the Trojans in their pursuit of qualifying for the College Football Playoff.
Things grew more complicated when Notre Dame, unaffiliated with a conference for football, negotiated a deal with the CFP that it would make the playoffs no matter what as long as the Fighting Irish finished in the top 12 in the final rankings.
Negotiations reached an impasse and Notre Dame wound up replacing Southern Cal on its schedule with a home-and-home with BYU.
To make the deal work, the schools agreed to play early in the season instead of late, when they typically faced off. With the constant traveling to the East Coast due to their new Big Ten schedule, the Trojans didn’t want yet another midseason road trip. Notre Dame was willing to make the compromise despite front-loading its schedule for 2030; two weeks after playing USC, the Irish will face Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
Both sides had continued to be vocal about wanting to make the deal work, and now the rivalry will continue for at least another four years.
“Our desire to play this game, this game’s part of our history, our college football history, has never been questioned, never will,” Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley said. “I think this benefits everyone. You know, I guess it benefits USC. I think it benefits Notre Dame. I think this benefits college football.”
