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Notre Dame-USC Rivalry: Actual Hope for Rivalry Rebirth or More Smoke from LA?

Notre Dame and USC have played annually for nearly a century. Will cooler heads prevail and will the two teams restart the historic rivalry in the somewhat near future?
Nick Shepkowski|
Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love (4) celebrates after getting a first down in the first half of a NCAA football game against Southern California at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025, in South Bend.
Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love (4) celebrates after getting a first down in the first half of a NCAA football game against Southern California at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025, in South Bend. | MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Notre Dame Fighting IrishUSC Trojans

Notre Dame and USC.

You can't tell the history of college football without discussing the rivalry in depth, and even these great rivals who have combined for more NFL draft picks than any other two programs in history, can't get out of their own way.

That's why Notre Dame and USC, a couple of traditional powerhouse football programs, aren't playing each other this fall for the first time (non-World War or pandemic caused) since 1925.

We've covered and heard the reasons for that in-depth over the last six or so months, but on Monday, news was made that perhaps the rivalry isn't done just yet.

Talks Reportedly Restart Between Notre Dame and USC

According to a report from Ryan Kartje of the Los Angeles Times, the two sides have again spoken about restarting the rivalry.

According to Kartje's report:

"A person familiar with the discussions not authorized to talk about them publicly told The Times that Notre Dame is now willing to discuss playing the game earlier in the season, which had previously been a sticking point."

How much earlier in the season that would be is not known.

The two have historically met in mid-October at Notre Dame (odd years) and closed the regular season in Los Angeles (odd years).

USC's move to the Big Ten and creating a path to get to the College Football Playoff certainly seems to be the biggest factor in the hiatus of the rivalry, but Kartje's piece doesn't mention anything about that.

He instead uses the hand-fed excuse from USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen, complaining about Notre Dame's automatic bid to the CFP if it finishes the regular season ranked in the top 12.

That was something Cohen first complained about this winter, more than a year after it was announced Notre Dame would be getting such access.

The Real Story is College Football Playoff Expansion

This piece is written trying to make USC look like the hero but the timing of it is all plenty suspicious.

It was just days ago that we were all pretty much given the guarantee that the College Football Playoff will be moving to 24 teams.

With that, it feels fairly safe to assume the Big Ten and SEC will receive a certain number of automatic bids to the expanded tournament.

That would then pretty much render USC's result against Notre Dame useless when it comes to its resume, with its rank in the Big Ten instead carrying far more weight.

So if USC loses to Notre Dame, then they aren't punished to miss the College Football Playoff.

Nick Shepkowski's Quick Thought:

I don't want to be a Debbie Downer here and I don't think I am, I'm simply putting the math together to make sense of all of it.

The piece is written to put even blame on the rivalry coming to an end, something anyone who has followed it at all knows isn't at all true.

Trust me when I say I believe Notre Dame and USC should play every year and it's laughable that there is any gap in this series at all.

I'd prefer Notre Dame get to play its home game against USC the last week of the regular season, as USC gets the Irish to travel cross country every-other Thanksgiving weekend, but then again we all know that would never happen under Cohen and Lincoln Riley.

Nicole Auerbach came out later in the day and reported that "technically these talks between schools never stopped", which makes me wonder how realistic a new deal really is.

I'm happy to hear the sides are chatting, but until there is announcement about an actual set of games taking place, I'm not holding my breath that a deal gets done by 2030.

More on Notre Dame-USC:

USC Names Underwhelming Replacement for Notre Dame

Lincoln Riley's Notre Dame Views Are From a Different Universe

Let's Be Real: USC Has Been Rather Mid for Better Part of 40 Years

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Nick Shepkowski
NICK SHEPKOWSKI

Managing Editor for Notre Dame On SI. Started covering Chicago sports teams for WSCR the Score, and over the years worked with CBS Radio, Audacy, NBC Sports, and FOX Sports as a contributor before running the Notre Dame wire site for USA TODAY.

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