Lincoln Riley To Blame? The Future of Notre Dame and USC

Liam Farrell
May 23
3 min read

Last year, Lincoln Riley's comments during the B1G Media Day pointed to a weary future regarding the Irish and the Trojans. The same suspicions came to light earlier this week. Will Riley and the Trojans destroy the greatest intersectional rivalry?

Photo by The Irish Tribune

In December 2021, both Notre Dame and USC were looking for new faces to take over their highly respected football programs.

Both teams eventually "found their guy" in Marcus Freeman and Lincoln Riley.

Over the past three years, Freeman and Riley have reignited a rivalry that took a year-long hiatus after not playing in 2020 due to COVID.

In 2022, Riley and Heisman-winning quarterback, Caleb Williams, got the best of the Irish on a late November night at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

A year later, Freeman and the Irish beat the brakes off the Trojans on a cold October night in South Bend, Indiana.

In 2024, Freeman marched the No. 5 Fighting Irish into Los Angeles and gutted out a 49-35 victory that punched Notre Dame's ticket to the college football playoff, a feat USC has never been able to accomplish.

The intermingling amongst the two programs has also created an unusual dynamic, with Chad Bowen leaving South Bend for Southern California. The two programs also "traded" two players as S Kennedy Urlacher ditched the Blue and Gold, and DL Elijah Hughes made the leap to the Fighting Irish.

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Last year, as teams prepared for the upcoming 2024 season, most conferences traditionally hold their media days. The Trojans, who entered their inaugural year in the B1G 10, made waves during their media time.

"Let's say you already qualify for the conference championship but maybe you aren't going to be a No. 1 or a No. 2 seed — you already lost a game or two — then you have a marquee game against Notre Dame coming up, like us. How do you handle that?" said Riley.

Traditions aside, USC's choice to remove Notre Dame off their schedule would be nothing short of disappointing.

Personally, being from Southern California, the Notre Dame-USC rivalry is special for a multitude of reasons.

From the storied history of both programs to the sheer number of fans across the country, both universities are blue bloods within the college football world. These two schools have combined for 24 national championships and 15 Heisman trophy winners.

Now, looking at it from USC's point of view, why would USC want to remove Notre Dame?

Well, in recent years, the Irish have been dominating the Trojans in head-to-head battles. So as USC is continuing to get adjusted to traveling across the country for their B1G Ten schedule; that October trip to South Bend isn't as special.

Yet, the tradition of the game itself is something that isn't meant to be tarnished. The Irish and Trojans have played 92 times, with the Irish leading the series 50-37-5.

The game is labeled the greatest intersectional rivalry for a reason as it dates to 1926 and is unlike any other rivalry within the sport. These teams aren't in each other's backyards; there is no proximity, yet the Irish and the Trojans still have a strong disliking towards each other.

As former USC captain and media personality Petros Papdakis said, "If it could survive World Wars, it should be able to survive the selfishness and the absolute myopic nature of the era we live in."

To remove this game from the schedule would be tragic and would be another blow to a historic yearly game. First Michigan. Then potentially the Trojans? No thanks. If you were to tell me that a rivalry was ending, I would've guessed it was Navy.