The Rivalry Returns: notre dame vs. usc

For the first time in a century, college football's most storied intersectional rivalry went dark. On Aug. 3, 2026, it came back to life, but not on the terms either side originally wanted.

Notre Dame and USC announced a four-game home-and-home series running from 2030 to 2033, ending an eight-month standoff that had wiped "the greatest intersectional rivalry in college football" off both schedules from 2026 through 2029. The deal preserves the century-old tradition, but it comes with a concession Notre Dame fought hard to avoid: every game will be played in the opening weeks of the season, not in its historic late-fall slot.

The path back to the table ran through an unrelated scheduling move. Notre Dame had lined up a home-and-home series with Indiana set to begin in 2030, but the Hoosiers ultimately backed out of that agreement. With that open date back on the board, conversations between Notre Dame and USC picked back up, and the Indiana cancellation is widely seen as the catalyst that reignited talks and ultimately cleared the way for this week's announcement.

The rivalry dates to 1926, when Knute Rockne led his team by train across the country for a 13-12 win. Since then, Notre Dame and USC had met every year but four (three during World War II and one during the COVID-shortened 2020 season), building the series into the most decorated in the sport, with a combined haul of national championships, Heisman winners and NFL draft picks unmatched by any other rivalry.

That streak nearly ended for good in December 2025. Despite months of negotiations, the two schools couldn't agree on terms for what would have been the 97th meeting, and on Dec. 22, Notre Dame confirmed it had filled its open 2026 date with a home-and-home series against BYU instead. USC coach Lincoln Riley didn't hide his frustration, telling reporters at the Alamo Bowl that Notre Dame had reneged on its own rhetoric.

"We took Notre Dame at their word that they would play us anytime, anywhere," Riley said. "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, hopefully continuing the series."

The two schools put out a joint statement the same week trying to soften the blow: "USC and Notre Dame recognize how special our rivalry is to our fans, our teams, and college football, and our institutions will continue working towards bringing back the Battle for the Jeweled Shillelagh."

At the root of the collapse was a scheduling philosophy clash. USC, now in the Big Ten, wanted the game moved earlier in the season, worried that a late-season loss to Notre Dame could damage its College Football Playoff positioning. Notre Dame, an independent with a standing scheduling agreement tied to the CFP, wanted to keep the game where it had lived for a century, in the heart of the fall.

Through it all, Marcus Freeman never wavered publicly. Long before the deal fell apart, Freeman made clear he wanted the series preserved regardless of timing.

"Where I feel about USC is very clear, would love to play 'em every single year," Freeman said in the fall of 2025. "Don't matter when we play 'em, I would love to continue the rivalry as long as I'm the head coach here. I think rivalries are great for college football. I think they're great for sports."

He repeated the sentiment even more bluntly weeks later: "It's pretty black and white for me. 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."

Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua echoed that stance throughout 2025, at one point calling the standoff a matter of principle rather than logistics. "We want to play USC every year," Bevacqua said last summer. "As I've said in the past, I just think that would be a horrible thing if we don't. I think it would be bad for us. I think it would be bad for college football."

Riley's public tone was cooler and more measured by comparison. Asked directly about the rivalry's outlook during the pause, he offered little: "We will at the appropriate time." At Big Ten Media Days in the summer of 2026, with the series still in limbo, he insisted nothing had changed from his end and reiterated that USC's conference obligations limited its flexibility on scheduling.

Talks quietly resumed in the spring of 2026, according to the Los Angeles Times, with Notre Dame signaling for the first time that it was willing to discuss playing the game earlier in the season, the compromise that ultimately unlocked the agreement.

The terms announced Aug. 3 give USC most of what it had been asking for. Notre Dame will travel to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for a Week 1 matchup on Aug. 31, 2030, before USC visits Notre Dame Stadium for Week 1 of the 2031 season on Aug. 30. The 2032 and 2033 meetings will each fall within the first three weeks of their respective seasons, with exact dates still to be finalized. Notre Dame's previously scheduled home-and-home with Indiana was scrapped to make room.

Riley confirmed the framework at USC's media day, framing it as a matter of conference obligation rather than preference. "We felt like the best thing for our program was to play this game early in the season," Riley said. "We're a part of a conference, we have a conference schedule to answer to. We don't make our own schedule."

Bevacqua, for his part, chose to emphasize what Notre Dame did preserve, the traditional home-and-home format, with no neutral-site games, rather than dwell on the calendar concession.

"I think it's great for Notre Dame, great for USC and great for college football," Bevacqua said. "We want to play USC in Notre Dame Stadium, and they want to play us in L.A. Memorial Coliseum. And frankly, that's the way it should be."

When the series resumes, it will do so as the second-most-played matchup in Notre Dame program history, trailing only the Irish's series with Navy. Notre Dame holds a 53-38-5 all-time edge, including a 30-14-1 mark at home, and enters the layoff having won eight of the last 10 meetings. Freeman is 3-1 against USC as head coach, with double-digit wins in each of his last three tries.

The teams will once again play for the Jeweled Shillelagh, the trophy presented by the Notre Dame Club of Los Angeles since 1952. Green-jeweled shamrocks mark Irish wins, and ruby-jeweled Trojan heads mark USC's.

For four years, none of that history will be added to. But after a standoff that at one point looked like it might end a 100-year tradition for good, both programs found enough common ground to keep the rivalry alive, even if it now kicks off the season instead of closing it.