One of college football\u2019s most hallowed rivalries will continue on, after all.<\/p>\n
After months of back-and-forth negotiations, USC and Notre Dame announced Monday that they\u2019ve agreed to a four-year series beginning in 2030 when the Irish will open the season against the Trojans at the Coliseum. The following year, the teams will play in Week 1 at Notre Dame Stadium and the two games after that will be played somewhere between Week 1-3 of the 2032 and 2033 seasons.<\/p>\n
USC ended up getting exactly what it asked of Notre Dame<\/a> more than a year ago, when the two sides first sat down to talk about renewing their rivalry series. USC\u2019s leadership sought to shift the game to the beginning of the season, first offering to play during Week 0 of the 2027 season. But Notre Dame rejected multiple scheduling offers.<\/p>\n That changed in recent weeks, as Notre Dame opted to cancel a home-and-home series with Indiana in 2030 and 2031 to accommodate their longtime rival.<\/p>\n \u201cWe felt like the best thing for our program was to play this game early in the season,\u201d USC coach Lincoln Riley<\/a> said. \u201cAs I\u2019ve said publicly, we\u2019re a part of a conference. We have a conference schedule to answer to. We don\u2019t make our own schedule, we don\u2019t choose our own kickoff times. And so with that, we have much less flexibility and so it made more sense for us to play this game in a traditional nonconference window.\u201d<\/p>\n USC held strong to its demand to play early in the season. Even as Riley took jab after jab<\/a> for running away from one of college football\u2019s most prestigious rivalries, the coach remained steadfast in noting the inequity in their schedules, with USC facing Notre Dame amid a grueling Big Ten schedule.<\/p>\n Notre Dame, meanwhile, wanted a long-term agreement to keep the game during the same late-season slot in which the series has always been played. Their dispute played out in a series of public relations missives, starting last May, when Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua suggested to Sports Illustrated<\/a> that the rivalry was in jeopardy because USC didn\u2019t want to continue it.<\/p>\n But after halting negotiations<\/a>, then returning again to the negotiating table, both schools found a way to reach an agreement<\/a> announced Monday.<\/p>\n