Notre Dame-USC Is BACK...But It Won't Be The Same | Others Receiving Votes

Uh, news you read first at Sports Illustrated, that series is back on four-game series, Notre Dame USC starting 2030.

Uh, it's moved to week one for the first two.

It's gonna be August 3rd, it's Labor Day weekend in Los Angeles, 2030, Labor Day weekend in South Bend, 2031.

And then it'll be somewhere in the first three weeks, uh, in 32 and 33.

Like it, love it or hate it?

What do you think, Kevin?

I'm only gonna say like it because it doesn't feel like it should be like a week 123 game.

Uh, I do love having these monster games off rip, and I think for Notre Dame especially.

Like with all the questions about their schedule coming up, although I think it's, you know, much more muted by, again, 2030 when who knows what the hell, what the heck will be going on in the world, right?

But I, I, I, I, I do feel , feel like that's like a late October game, that's a November game, that, that is not a, that is not a week two game, especially, I mean, look, I By, by then, I mean, week one might be August 15th.

We keep moving it up.

I mean, we've got the Protect College Sports Act, if it passes, says we, we have to make every effort possible to play a championship game on , on January 8th.

So if that's the case.

Yeah, we were, we were playing like, uh, let's like it might be like the MLB trade deadline leading to the, uh, to, to, to the Notre Dame USC rivalry, but I, look, I, I think it's awesome for college football to have it back.

It's a great rivalry.

Uh, last year's game, uh, I, I was, I was there just as a fan.

It was a really cool experience environment, um, and you could tell like it, it was a game that still mattered to people, and it mattered to both sidelines in a way that was meaningful and Uh, I actually think that's one of the things that I give an immense amount of credit to coaches across college football and, and college basketball for is like, Some of these rivalries that could feel a little different now between realignment and the portal and like guys not being there, I think for the most part, a lot of these rivalries, you still like lace them up and everybody understands what it means.

And I thought, especially Marcus Freeman and Lincoln Riley last year, did a good job of making sure everybody knew what it mean, knew what it meant.

And I'm hopeful that it still feels that way after a brief hiatus, but yeah, excited to have it back.

I know it's hard to, to fix these things once you break the, break the, break the, break the calendar and, you know, it's gonna take a couple of years to get it back on the schedule, but already looking forward to 2030 for that one.

Yeah, I, I like it, I think I, I don't love it, I certainly don't hate it.

I, you can't let perfect be the enemy of good, and in a perfect world, they would continue to play in Los Angeles on Thanksgiving weekend and South Bend in mid-October.

That's the way it had been forever, and it's not just, well, that's the way it should be because that's the way it was.

It worked.

I mean, that game, especially in LA often had massive implications.

Uh, Notre Dame had national championship aspirations get blown up in the Coliseum.

Notre Dame, USC in mid-October, the green jersey game in 1977, Joe Montana and company, that turned their whole season around, they go on to win the national title.

So, those games, uh, the, the Bush push game in mid-October at Notre Dame.

USC goes on to play for the championship.

The, the just massive implications in the later in the season, the bigger they were.

I'm, I'm glad they're playing.

That's fine.

The fact they're playing early, to me, this is a, It's a, it's a victory for USC.

It's a bit of a pyrrhic victory because I thought they came off looking kind of weak by, by bailing on this thing altogether for 4 years, but they didn't want to keep playing later in the season, especially the road game, uh, in the middle of the Big 10 schedule when they already have to travel across the country 2 or 3 times.

So, they got what they want, and they still get to have the series.

And it does underscore to me that Notre Dame.

Can't just schedule with impunity the way perhaps it once did.

It's harder for them to come up with a schedule with quality games.

And you look at this year, when there is no USC game, and they've got Miami, thanks to the agreement with the ACC.

They've got SMU ranked, and, but then they had to go get BYU and they got to play the first one in Provo, and that's it.

Three ranked opponents.

You know, the days of being able to schedule Michigan, uh uh.

Uh, some of the other big non-conference games they've scheduled, a little harder to get done, and Notre Dame's independent status working a little bit against it to that respect now, especially as like the ACC and not the, not the ACC cause they're gonna always schedule Notre Dame, but the SEC going to 9 games and trying to curtail some of their big non-conference matchups.

This tells me, Notre Dame had to bend and had to give something to get back this game, a game that they really need to have on the schedule.