USC and Notre Dame will renew their longstanding rivalry in 2030 with a four-game series after a four-year hiatus from one of college football's most iconic matchups.
The future of the game was still unknown when the Trojans traveled to South Bend, Indiana, last October. As it turned out, that Fighting Irish victory was the final meeting of the decade as the parties were unable to reach an agreement on an extension of a rivalry that dates back to 1926.
USC and Notre Dame both announced on Monday that the series would pick back up in 2030 with a season-opening matchup in Los Angeles. The Trojans and Fighting Irish will face each other in Week 1 again in 2031 at Notre Dame Stadium. The 2032 and 2033 meetings will be played in the first, second or third week of the season.
The two sides reportedly disagreed on when the game should be held. USC hoped to play it earlier in the season as a late loss could harm its quest to make its first College Football Playoff. Notre Dame appears to have acquiesced to that request, as all four future meetings will take place within the first month of the season.
This is the first time since 2020 that the Trojans and Fighting Irish will not play and just the second time since 1945. Notre Dame leads the all-time series, 53-37-5.
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USC and Notre Dame are two of the most storied brands and winningest teams in the sport. The Fighting Irish have won 13 national championships and produced seven Heisman Trophy winners. The Trojans have nine titles, and their eight Heisman winners are the most by any one program.
"It’s always fun when this game means something," former Trojans quarterback Matt Leinart told Athlon Sports last October ahead of the 95th meeting. "Notre Dame has dominated this game for what feels like the last decade, so there hasn’t been a ton at stake for the most part, other than just the rivalry and trying to beat that opposing team."
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The resumption of the rivalry does not come without a cost. Notre Dame is reportedly canceling its two-game series with Indiana, which was previously scheduled for 2030 and 2031. The Hoosiers are an in-state rival that has recently risen to national prominence. And the two programs recently met in the 2024 College Football Playoff.
However, Power Four programs are increasingly reticent to test themselves out of conference. For all the talk of playoff expansion, the field still sits at 12 teams. And despite the push to consider strength of schedule, a 9-3 team has yet to make the CFP. So the prospect of taking an unnecessary loss is unappealing for prospective playoff programs.
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"If we beat Ohio State last year, surely we’re in a much better position when it comes to the playoffs," Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said at SEC media days. "But on the other side of it is, if I don’t play Ohio State and I play Jones Junior High, and we’re 10-2 and our two losses are to Georgia and Florida, we’re a playoff team."
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That's a sentiment USC coach Lincoln Riley can surely sympathize with. His Trojans went 9-3 last season with losses to Illinois, Oregon and Notre Dame and finished at No. 16 in the final CFP rankings. Had USC played a Group of Six opponent at home instead of a difficult rivalry game out of conference, a 10-2 team would have been closer to the bubble and had a stronger playoff case.
The upcoming season will be a perfect test case for that theory. USC hosts San Jose State, Fresno State and Louisiana before beginning a brutal Big Ten slate, which includes visits from Washington, Oregon and Ohio State and trips to play at Penn State and Indiana.
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The Trojans do not have any future non-conference games scheduled against Power Four opponents until 2030 when the Notre Dame series resumes.
Things change fast in college football, so four years feels very far away. But Riley would do well to lead USC to the playoff before then. If not, a different coach will almost surely be leading the Trojans into that game against the Fighting Irish. As for Notre Dame, the hope is that coach Marcus Freeman will still be on the sideline, ignoring the temptations of the NFL.
