Historic USC-Notre Dame football rivalry is set to resume in 2030

One of the most historic rivalries in college football is back on.

USC and Notre Dame have agreed to a new four-year series, the Trojans announced Monday, with the first game in Week 1 of the 2030 season at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The next game will be played at Notre Dame Stadium in Week 1 of the 2031 season. The 2032 and 2033 matchups will be announced later, with each game expected to take place during one of the first three weeks of their respective season.

“Honestly, we felt like the best thing for our program was to play this game early in the season,” USC coach Lincoln Riley said Monday inside Heritage Hall on campus.

“As I’ve said publicly, we’re a part of a conference — we have a conference schedule to answer to; we don’t make our own schedule, we don’t 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 non-conference window.

“As I’ve said always, we want to play this game — that has never changed, that never will change — but we also want to stand up for USC and do what’s right for us and the fact for us is, our conference and a lot of things have changed.

“Our desire to play this game, this game’s part of our history, part of college football history — that’s never been questioned, never will, so we’re glad we finally got to a place where we got the other side to agree.”

The Fighting Irish and Trojans will not play this season for the first time since the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Before that, they had met every season since a three-year hiatus from 1943–45 during World War II.

“I think this benefits everyone,” Riley said of playing the Irish. “I think this benefits USC, I think this benefits Notre Dame, I think this benefits college football, so this is important, we know it’s important to our fan base, we know it’s important to our alumni, to the former players and coaches, but we also know what’s important to them is doing the best thing for USC and not compromising that either, and so finding the right path that allows us to accomplish both was really, really important.”

Negotiations between the schools had previously broken down over multiple issues, including when the game was played and and agreement that Notre Dame had struck with the College Football Playoff that assured the Irish a playoff berth if they were included in the top 12 of the final rankings.

Notre Dame has dominated the series in recent years, winning seven of the last eight games in the rivalry. With the Irish off USC’s schedule this season, the Trojans will play nonconference games against San Jose State, Fresno State and Louisiana.

Notre Dame replaced USC with Brigham Young on its 2026 schedule.

“I know this is a few years down the road, we’ve got a lot to focus on right now,” Riley said of the rivalry resumption, “but we’re certainly not here pretending that this game is anything but extremely important and glad to have it back.”

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