Notre Dame vs. USC rivalry: Andy Staples calls both schools 'incredibly soft' for ending matchup

Notre Dame and USC made headlines on Monday with the reporting that their rivalry series would not be scheduled in 2026 or 2027, per Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports. That news was frustrating for many throughout college football, including to On3’s Andy Staples.

Staples went in on the news of the cancelled series between the Fighting Irish and Trojans during ‘Andy & Ari On3′ on Monday. It comes as a result of long-term negotiations to get to an agreement, which led to a decision that he called “absolutely ridiculous” and ” incredibly soft”, with the history that’s being sacrificed, by those in South Bend and Los Angeles.

“We’ve been talking about this for a while. We’ve known that they were at odds trying to figure out how to continue the rivalry,” said Staples. “USC, with it’s new Big Ten schedule, does not necessarily want to keep playing Notre Dame on the dates that they’ve been playing Notre Dame…(USC) wanted to play earlier in the season.

“This rivalry? They’ve met 79 times consecutively, excluding the COVID season. The only thing that has kept these two teams from playing for most of the past century? World War II, and a worldwide pandemic. And, now, scheduling concerns, worries about competitiveness, worries about not making the College Football Playoff? That is what is derailing the rivalry. It’s ridiculous. It’s absolutely ridiculous. These two teams need to play. It’s incredibly soft that they’re not going to play each other anymore…All of the things that college football keeps losing? This is one of the worst ones. This is one of the most important rivalries in sports…It’s one of the coolest rivalries in college football. The history of it is amazing. The pageantry of it is amazing. The colors are amazing. The uniforms are amazing. The players who played in this game. Think about that. Think about all of that, and it’s just tossed to the side.”

Notre Dame and USC have been playing since 1926, with the Irish leading the series at 53-37-5. However, at least for the next two falls, they won’t meet on the field, with Notre Dame reportedly having since replaced them for that span with BYU.

That said, Staples understands why it’s happening. USC determined they can’t afford to add this game in the middle of conference play in the Big Ten. Yet it’s then a detriment, with one less premier opponent on the slate, to the independent scheduling for Notre Dame.

“Now, I do think it’s soft that USC doesn’t want to play it, but I do understand where Jen Cohen is coming from. Let’s look at USC’s Big Ten schedule in 2026. At home, they get Maryland, then Ohio State, Oregon, and Washington. We don’t know the dates of those games yet, but we do know they’re getting Ohio State, Oregon, and Washington at home. At least they get those at home….Meanwhile, on the road? Indiana, Penn State, Rutgers, Wisconsin, and UCLA,” said Staples. “So, yes, USC has got a very difficult road, very difficult. And, they’re in a situation where they want to make the College Football Playoff. They have not made it under Lincoln Riley…And so, they feel pretty far away, and, if you add a game with Notre Dame? Well, that’s probably another loss, given the way that Notre Dame has been recruiting and playing of late. So, I get why they do that. I get why they wanted to put that game earlier rather than later, because, if you put that in the middle of Big Ten play, and its sandwiched between an Ohio State game and a Penn State game? Well, that’s a lot of body blow theory that your team is going to have to deal with.

“Scheduling is hard when you’re an independent. Scheduling games when you need to schedule them in October and November, as an independent, when everybody else is in conference, is very, very difficult. So, that’s the situation that Notre Dame finds itself in. The problem is, other than the ACC scheduling agreement, which is five ACC teams must play Notre Dame every year? They have no way of getting power conference competition in October and November without the USC game. And so, they’re going to have to play ACC teams and, if those ACC teams aren’t good, which is a lot of what they were dealing with this year, then they’ve got to deal with that. And I think that’s the biggest problem that Notre Dame faces now in this era trying to be an independent…I just hope that they can cobble together a schedule that allows them to not have to win the first two games of the season if they want to make the playoff.”

Regardless, Staples wasn’t any less critical of the outcome, as he called out the leadership of both athletic departments to fix this. That’s so as the sport won’t lose one more special game that makes it as great as it is, especially for a reason as modern and, in his mind, unnecessary as this one.

“It’s just so sad that it has to end this way,” said Staples.

“It’s a tough situation, but I just think it sucks for the sport that this series is not being continued…My schedule might be too hard is not an okay reason to not play this game. You should want to play this game…It still sucks. I get the reasons. Doesn’t make it suck any less…Fix this. Get this series back on the schedule. Fix it. You don’t want to be the people who were at fault for this series going away, and, if you don’t fix it, you will be.”

“It sucks. I don’t know what else to say. Like, all of these changes in the sport? They rarely give us anything better…Fix it. This is not a good direction for the sport. This doesn’t need to happen. Fix it.”