With the potential end to the storied USC Trojans–Notre Dame Fighting Irish football series looming, Irish athletic director Pete Bevacqua has made it clear that his school is seeking a long-term extension of the rivalry.
When asked by Sports Illustrated on Monday whether USC and Notre Dame plan to play annually, Bevacqua said, “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.”
The two football bluebloods have met 95 times since 1924, playing every year but three during World War II and during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. The Oct. 18 game in South Bend is the last one in the current contract. USC has offered a one-year extension to play in Los Angeles in 2026, sources tell SI, while Notre Dame desires another long-term deal.
“We want the USC–Notre Dame rivalry to continue, which is why we offered an extension of our agreement,” USC associate athletic director Cody Worsham tells SI. “It’s a special game to our fans and our institution. We will continue to work with Notre Dame on scheduling future games.”
USC has expressed reluctance to enter into a long-term deal due to uncertainty about the future College Football Playoff format, and while assessing the demands of greater travel as a member of the Big Ten. USC has broached the idea of moving the game to a season-opening spot on the schedule, sources tell SI.
No annual series matches programs with more national titles. Notre Dame has won nine championships and USC seven since the Associated Press poll was begun in 1936, which established a national standard for recognized champions.
The Fighting Irish recently agreed to a 12-year, home-and-home deal with the Clemson Tigers that is scheduled to begin in 2027, but Notre Dame officials believe that is not an impediment to maintaining its rivalry with USC. An Atlantic Coast Conference member in sports other than football, the Irish have an agreement with the league to play five ACC football games per season. The annual Clemson matchup will count toward that total in games that were already part of that rotation, according to ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, which is five of the 12 years.
“I have been pretty clear that the rotation is the rotation and that is five games every year,” Phillips said at the 2025 ACC spring meetings last week. “The Clemson–Notre Dame piece of it is not a part of that rotational five. … The ones that had already been announced, that is part of this rotation that we have across 16 other schools beside Clemson.”
Notre Dame is expecting all 12 of the Clemson games to count toward the annual ACC total, per sources, with discussions ongoing to hammer out that part of the agreement.
Both USC and Notre Dame are heading into their fourth seasons with their current coaches, but have been on different trajectories. Under Lincoln Riley, the Trojans’ record has slid from 11–3 to 8–5 to 7–6 last year, their first season in the Big Ten. Under Marcus Freeman, the Irish have improved from 9–4 to 10–3 to 14–2 and a berth in the College Football Playoff championship game last season. Freeman is 2–1 against Riley in the rivalry, having won the last two.
Riley said this about the Notre Dame series last summer at Big Ten media days: “I would love to [continue the series]. I know it means a lot to a lot of people. 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.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Notre Dame–USC Football Series in Jeopardy, But Irish Looking to Extend Rivalry.
