USC Proposes Future Games + Playing in September to Notre Dame
- Luciano Antonini
- Aug 28
- 3 min read
USC has proposed extending its rivalry with Notre Dame, as well as the idea of moving the game to earlier in the season. The Notre Dame vs USC rivalry may live on. Here are all the details.
Photo by USC Athletics (left) / The Irish Tribune (right)
According to the Los Angeles Times, Southern Cal has made “an amended offer” to Notre Dame to extend the annual series between the two college football powers for multiple years beyond 2025, per USC Athletic Director Jennifer Cohen. While no agreement has been reached as of Thursday, Cohen is "very hopeful" that an agreement between the two schools will happen "very soon".
In addition to the proposed future games, the Trojans have also pitched the possibility of playing the storied rivalry earlier in the season, such as in September, which would better suit Southern Cal's regular season schedule as the team is expected to make several trips to the midwest and east coast sections of the country every season with them being a member of the Big Ten conference. USC will travel to play Purdue (Indiana), Illinois, Notre Dame (Indiana), and Nebraska this season. In 2024, the Trojans traveled to play Michigan, Minnesota, and Maryland at their stadiums.
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Playing Notre Dame earlier in the season, most likely September, would allow the Trojans the ability to space out long-distance travel across a wider time frame as opposed to primarily October and November, when the bulk of conference play takes place for most teams. Moving the series to earlier in the season would mean Notre Dame would have to adjust its scheduling strategy of ending the regular season in California every season.
Notre Dame notoriously has played all of their final regular-season games, with the exclusion of 2020 (Covid), in California since 1996. Notre Dame leaders have cited the opportunity for the team to play on the West Coast every year as a reason for the scheduling philosophy, while others believe it's in regard to Notre Dame's stunning loss to Boston College in 1993 that potentially cost the Irish a path to a National Championship. Since then, the Irish have played every final regular season game, besides Syracuse in 2020 due to the pandemic and an away game at Air Force in 1995, at either Stanford or Southern Cal, since that loss to Boston College at home.
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Pete Bevacqua and Notre Dame have been pushing for a long-term rivalry scheduling agreement with USC all this time, with USC previously in favor of a more short-term agreement due to the uncertainty of the future of the College Football Playoff's format and how many automatic bids would be awarded to the Big Ten conference. Marcus Freeman has cited his openness to play the Trojans anytime or way during the season, expressing his desire to keep the rivalry going as long as possible. USC HC Lincoln Riley has also expressed his desire to continue the rivalry as well, citing it as a reason he took the USC job. No matter what stems from these negotiations, The Irish Tribune will keep you posted.
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FYI, The season ending games, usually Thanksgiving weekend, go way back to when ND would not accept a bid to bowl games. The purpose was to give the team a chance to play in warm weather in late November, when the student body was home for Thanksgiving. It had NOTHING to do with the Boston college game in 1993, as this scheduling format was in place for a long, long time. Before ND played Stanford, back in the 60's, the team played Miami and USC un alternating years. Whoever wrote this article needs to do better research.