What the End of the USC Rivalry Means for Notre Dame’s Independence
- Ruben Kelly Ysasi
- 17 hours ago
- 9 min read
In an article released on Monday, December 22, Ross Dellenger reported that USC and Notre Dame officials failed to reach an agreement to extend their historic rivalry. The 2026 matchup would have been the 97th meeting in the series, one that has spanned nearly a century. The only times the two programs did not play were during a three-year hiatus in World War II and in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo via USC Athletics
Everyone’s Biggest Question: Why?
When USC decided to leave the PAC-12 for the Big Ten, they faced a difficult realization. They were no longer facing explosive West Coast air-raid offenses that put up hundreds of yards per game through the air alone. Instead, they had to travel to Rutgers, Iowa, Minnesota, and Michigan for conference games—programs notorious for their “trench warfare” mindsets. But why is that different from regular conference games? The difference is timing and location. These games would be played in December. In the Midwest.
Playing Iowa in November at Kinnick Stadium is a very different scenario than hosting Stanford in sunny Southern California. The Big Ten also features many elite programs within its 18-team conference. Indiana, Ohio State, and Oregon were all ranked inside the College Football Playoff Selection Committee’s Top 5 at the end of the season. Michigan, Iowa, Washington, Penn State (despite a major midseason collapse that led to their coach being fired), Nebraska, and Illinois, among others, were all ranked at various points throughout the year.
USC’s schedule was no longer a Big Ten season opener, cupcakes, conference games in the same time zone, and one game every other year travelling to South Bend. It became a gauntlet—not just because of the opponents, but because of the toll it took on players and staff. Flying to Ann Arbor on a Wednesday night or Thursday morning, spending days acclimating to the weather, playing Saturday, taking a roughly four-hour flight home that night, and still being expected to practice or meet Sunday or Monday, only to possibly repeat the cycle the following week.
In doing so, they would also be playing in some of the toughest atmospheres in the country. Oregon, Ohio State, Nebraska, Michigan, and Iowa are notorious for hostile environments. Those programs have posted a combined 59–13 record at home over the past two seasons.
On top of that, USC would still have to play Notre Dame. Playing such a taxing schedule, potentially travelling to Rutgers and Maryland in back-to-back weeks before facing a consistently strong Notre Dame team, is difficult to stomach, especially for a program with College Football Playoff aspirations.
Ross Dellenger stated;
“USC officials determined that the game date was not ideal considering past decisions from the CFP selection committee punishing schools for losses, especially late in the season.”
Officials from both universities attempted to negotiate an extension to the rivalry. USC offered to move the game to September or host it at a neutral site, with the possibility of airing it on Netflix. Those proposals did not resonate with Irish officials, who wanted to preserve the longstanding agreement of rotating between October games in South Bend and season finales in Southern California.
Notre Dame Athletic Director Pete Bevacqua, who has seen his name appear throughout national headlines following the CFP committee’s decision to exclude Notre Dame from the College Football Playoff, stated in an interview that he was confident the two schools would reach an agreement.
Unfortunately, that was not the case.
Moving Forward
Notre Dame wasted no time finding its 12th game for the 2026 season, securing a matchup with a program that faced a similar fate to the Irish earlier in December.
BYU will host Notre Dame in 2026 at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo, Utah, before traveling to South Bend in 2027. Dates, times, and broadcast information have yet to be announced.
The most recent meeting between the two programs occurred in 2022 during the Shamrock Series at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Notre Dame won 28–20 over No. 16 BYU, improving to 7–2 in the all-time series. That season also marked the last time the Irish finished unranked in the AP Poll.
The game will draw additional attention due to comments made earlier this month by Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark, who publicly argued that BYU deserved to be ranked ahead of Notre Dame in the CFP and called Bevacqua’s comments regarding the ACC’s social media campaign promoting Miami “egregious.” Notre Dame's withdrawal from the Pop Tart Bowl (Which would have seen them match up against BYU) will also be a major focal point.
History of the Rivalry
Notre Dame leads the all-time series against USC 51–37–5 and is 3-1 against the Trojans under head coach Marcus Freeman. But the rivalry represents far more than a ranked non-conference matchup.
Since its inception in 1926, Notre Dame–USC has captured the essence of college football. Combined, the two programs boast:
23 National Championships*
15 Heisman Trophy winners
1,818 All-time wins
190 Consensus All-Americans
69 Unanimous All-Americans
1,071 NFL Draft Picks
157 First Round NFL Draft Picks
28 NFL Hall of Famers
83 College Football Hall of Famers
In short, it is not only one of the greatest rivalries in college football history, but one of the greatest rivalries in American sports—alongside Michigan/Ohio State, Yankees/Red Sox, the Iron Bowl, Duke/UNC, Bears/Packers, Celtics/Lakers, and Army/Navy.
*Indicates titles claimed by each university
Will the Rivalry Ever Return?
To put it bluntly: we don’t know. Officials from both schools have expressed interest in restoring the series by the 2030 season, but nothing has been confirmed. What is certain is that the programs will not meet for at least the next two seasons.
The state of college football itself remains uncertain heading toward 2030. Five years is a long gap between rivalry games. Excluding postseason matchups or special eligibility circumstances, only a small group of current underclassmen—those able to redshirt and potentially receive medical waivers—would have a chance to face USC again. The only players currently meeting that criteria are Jordan Botelho and Jake Tafelski*.
*Tafelski transferred to ND from Central Michigan
Other Historical Rivalries Impacted by Realignment
USC is not the only rivalry affected by conference realignment. Notre Dame stopped playing Michigan annually after partially joining the ACC in 2014 and has faced the Wolverines just twice since. Michigan State will play Notre Dame in 2026 for the first time since 2013. Purdue, Pitt, and Boston College are also no longer annual matchups—despite Purdue remaining a frequent opponent.
The Stanford series is also up in the air, as the Cardinal face similar travel challenges under the ACC and increasingly unfavorable scheduling circumstances. The schools have not extended their agreement beyond 2026.
The most notorious rivalry cancellation in Notre Dame history remains the “Catholics vs. Convicts” series against Miami in the late 1980s. Between 1987 and 1989, the winner of that game went on to claim the national championship. The series was ultimately discontinued due to escalating hostility between fanbases.
The Lone Survivor
With the annual matchup against USC ending, Navy will be the only rivalry on Notre Dame’s schedule played every year.
Independence and How it Correlates to the Decision
At the center of the disagreement lies a fundamental difference: USC is bound to a conference schedule, while Notre Dame is not.
As a Big Ten member, USC has limited flexibility. Conference obligations dictate travel, timing, and opponent quality—demands that intensify late in the season. Notre Dame, by contrast, retains control of its schedule. Independence allows the Irish to balance competitive opponents while avoiding the cumulative toll of conference-heavy travel.
However, that flexibility now presents a new challenge.
For decades, USC served as a built-in strength-of-schedule anchor for Notre Dame. The rivalry provided an annual, late-season matchup against a nationally recognized brand that consistently carried weight with voters, media partners, and the CFP selection committee. Regardless of record, USC offered résumé value that few non-conference opponents could replicate.
With the rivalry gone, Notre Dame loses one of its most dependable pillars of national credibility. While the Irish can, and will, continue to schedule strong opponents, replacing USC’s annual brand value is difficult. Rotating non-conference matchups lack the cumulative impact of a yearly rivalry long viewed as a benchmark.
This matters more than ever in the playoff era. Strength of schedule is frequently referenced—explicitly or implicitly—when comparing teams with similar records. USC often served as a late-season data point that helped define Notre Dame’s résumé. Without it, the Irish become more dependent on ACC opponents, neutral-site games, and one-off matchups that may fluctuate widely in quality.
Independence cuts both ways. It gives Notre Dame freedom, but also responsibility. With one fewer elite opponent annually, the margin for error shrinks. A single loss now carries more weight without USC to offset it.
Navy and five ACC opponents remain locked in each season, and Notre Dame still can schedule marquee games. In 2025, excluding USC, those opponents include Miami, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Purdue, and Boise State—proof that the Irish are still willing to challenge themselves.
But the loss of USC reshapes the equation. Independence remains an advantage, yet the absence of Notre Dame’s most iconic rivalry forces the program to rethink how it builds—and defends—its strength of schedule in a rapidly evolving sport.
Issues with Future Matchups
Notre Dame’s 2026 schedule has faced significant scrutiny following its exclusion from the College Football Playoff. The schedule is as follows:
9/6 Wisconsin (Shamrock Series)
9/12 Rice
9/19 Michigan State
9/26 at Purdue
10/3 at UNC
10/31 Navy (at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA)
11/7 Miami
11/21 Boston College
TBA SMU
TBA at Syracuse
TBA at BYU
TBA Stanford
On paper, it appears weak. But context matters.
The Wisconsin game was originally scheduled for 2020, with the agreement signed in 2017, when Wisconsin finished 13–1, went undefeated in the regular season, ranked No. 6 in the final CFP standings, and defeated Miami in the Orange Bowl.
Michigan State was announced in 2024 as a continuation of a historic rivalry. However, the Spartans have not met Notre Dame since 2017, and the Megaphone Trophy has not left South Bend since.
The core issue is this: Notre Dame cannot control whether opponents are elite when the games are played. Without conference affiliation, elite matchups are not guaranteed annually.
USC, by contrast, will play Indiana, Ohio State, and Oregon in 2026, not as non-conference challenges, but as built-in conference games. All three finished inside the Top 5 of the final 2025 CFP rankings.
Similarly, South Carolina will face Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Georgia, Clemson, and Texas A&M—every one ranked inside the Top 13 nationally in Blue Chip Ratio*, with four CFP participants.
So while Rice, Purdue, and Boston College may not be perennial contenders, Notre Dame is constrained by long-term scheduling agreements. In 2025, the Irish played only three ACC teams ranked inside the Top 10 (Miami, Pitt, and NC State), going 2–1. The issue? Wins over Georgia Tech, Virginia, or Duke would have strengthened their CFP argument considerably.
Joining a conference is not the only solution. But Notre Dame must adapt how it schedules. The Irish recently announced a 12-year agreement with Clemson—only for Clemson to follow it up with its worst season since 2010.
*Ratio of 4/5 Stars to non-4/5 Stars
Why This Isn’t Just About a Rivalry
The end of the Notre Dame–USC rivalry is not simply the loss of a historic matchup—it is a case study in how modern college football increasingly rewards conference depth over independence. While the game has long been one of the sport’s most iconic non-conference fixtures, its cancellation highlights a growing structural imbalance: conference members are guaranteed elite opponents through league play, while independents must forecast competitive relevance years in advance.
For Notre Dame, the ripple effects go far beyond tradition. Strength of schedule, playoff optics, and late-season résumé value are now more volatile than ever. And in a system where margins are razor-thin, volatility can be the difference between postseason inclusion and exclusion.
The Math Behind the Loss
For decades, the USC matchup functioned as one of Notre Dame’s most reliable strength-of-schedule anchors. Regardless of outcome, the game carried national relevance, brand equity, and late-season timing—three elements that historically influenced how the Irish were evaluated by voters, media, and the College Football Playoff selection committee.
Removing USC from the calendar strips Notre Dame of an annual opponent that combined competitive equity with perceived weight. While the Irish can replace the game with quality opponents, replicating the cumulative résumé value of a yearly rivalry against a traditional power is far more difficult. In an era where conference champions accumulate elite matchups by default, independence now requires precision scheduling rather than tradition.
A Rivalry Lost in the Modern Game
College football has never been more national, and never less forgiving. The end of the Notre Dame–USC rivalry is not the result of apathy or institutional failure, but a reflection of a sport reorganized around conference incentives, playoff optimization, and logistical efficiency.
What was once a cornerstone of late-season evaluation has become a liability for programs navigating rigid conference schedules. USC adjusted to those realities. Notre Dame, independent by design, must now recalibrate within a system increasingly structured against programs operating outside conference alignment.
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