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Notre Dame

Notre Dame football rivalry with USC in jeopardy, per Sports Illustrated report

IMG_9992by: Tyler Horka05/19/25tbhorka
USC HC Lincoln Riley, Notre Dame HC Marcus Freeman
USC HC Lincoln Riley (left) and Notre Dame HC Marcus Freeman (right). (Kirby Lee | Imagn Images)

Notre Dame has only played two opponents 90-plus times in the long history of Fighting Irish football — Navy and USC. The Irish’s rivalry with the latter could be in jeopardy, according to a report of Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated.

Forde asked Notre Dame director of athletics Pete Bevacqua on Monday if there is interest from the Irish in continuing the series with the Trojans past this year, which is the last the two sides have an agreement for. The answer was a resounding yes.

Notre Dame has reportedly offered up a longterm extension of the head-to-head contract.

“I think Southern Cal and Notre Dame should play every year for as long as college football is played, and SC knows that’s how we feel,” Bevacqua told Forde.

USC, who has only agreed to a one-year contract extension with Notre Dame, per Forde, feels a similar way, but things are a bit more complicated on their end. Now a member of the Big Ten, the Trojans are in for many cross-country road trips for conference games. They’re signing up for an extra one every other year for as long as they continue to play Notre Dame.

There’s also the uncertainty of the future of the College Football Playoff format. The Big Ten is hard enough to win games in. In going against Notre Dame, the Trojans are facing a foe against which they’ve lost five of the last six games. That’s a lot of black marks if you’re looking at it in terms of trying to put forth a solid CFP résumé.

So, easier path to the CFP or continuation of a longstanding non-conference rivalry?

“I know it means a lot to a lot of people,” USC head coach Lincoln Riley said last summer. “The purist in you, no doubt. Now if you get in a position where you got to make a decision on what’s best for SC to help us win a national championship vs. keeping that, shoot, then you got to look at it.

“And listen, we’re not the first example of that. Look all the way across the country. There has been a lot of other teams sacrifice rivalry games. And I’m not saying that’s what’s going to happen. But as we get into this playoff structure, and if it changes or not, we’re in this new conference, we’re going to learn something about this as we go and what the right and the best track is to winning a national championship, that’s going to evolve.”

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