The recent report of resumed talks of continuing the annual series should serve as a reminder of why it's USC that needs this more than Notre Dame.
The Notre Dame defense swallows up Southern California running back Harry Dalton III in the first half of a NCAA football game at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025, in South Bend.
| MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Imageson Monday that Notre Dame and USC were in active discussions to resume their annual rivalry should have let out a sigh of relief.last December, which was that the two schools couldn't come to an agreement to play in 2026, and that the Irish's automatic Playoff bid with a top -12 seed played a significant role in that stalemate. USC needs to play Notre Dame ... badly Wait, why?
Won't the beefed-up Big Ten do USC's bidding? And won't a likely expanded Playoff make it so that all motivation to schedule premier non-conference matchups is completely off the table? You see, what many have chosen to ignore in Southern California is that while having yet another cross-country trip to the Midwest after a full Big Ten schedule is taxing, it's a more important data point for the Trojans than the Irish.
Let's assume that Playoff expansion is indeed imminent and the Big Ten will have a certain amount of automatic bids each year. USC being one of those teams is far from a given considering the variance we've seen from the Trojans under Lincoln Riley. — a truly insane thing to say for someone who brought the future Heisman Trophy winner with him from Oklahoma back in 2022 — here are the facts.
Through Year 4, Riley lacks statement wins against conference competition, both in the Pac-12 and the Big Ten. Against top-15 foes in his conference, Riley's Trojans are 1-6. The lone win was this past season when USC beat No. 15 Michigan at home. What does that mean? One can't assume that Riley is about to start racking up statement wins in conference play. Riley has just as many wins against the Irish as he does the top-15 teams in USC's conference. We can debate the reported stalemate of when these two teams would like to play, but this comes back to something obvious — USC needs to do damage in non-conference play.
If USC can get Notre Dame back on the schedule, it'll have an annual preseason acknowledgement that a 9-3 regular season is different than most. Of course, losing that game by four touchdowns wouldn't help the Trojans' Playoff chances, but in the likely event that more home-and-homes are getting canceled with the expanded Playoff in mind, there will be a new respect for teams who still seek premier non-conference matchups.
Sure, it benefits Notre Dame to continue the USC rivalry for all the obvious reasons. It sells tickets, it drives up the NBC contract, it adds another Playoff data point , etc. But the Irish still have enough flexibility with their future schedule — there are at least two open spots each year beginning in 2027 — that they can pivot and still add premier matchups.
Alternatively, they can add Group of 5 teams knowing that they already have nine Power Conference foes in 2027-28. It's also a bit different to discuss the year-to-year variance of a Notre Dame program with at least nine regular-season wins in eight of the last nine seasons as opposed to a USC program who has three such seasons in that stretch.
Perhaps it's an unpopular opinion to suggest that the team with just one win in the rivalry during the 2020s needs it more. Some might tell themselves that if USC had scheduled Indiana State instead of Notre Dame that it would've had a 10-2 regular season and made the Playoff. That would ignore the fact that five teams that won 10 regular-season games against Power Conference schedules were left out of the 12-team Playoff, including Notre Dame. Context still matters.
The context of USC reportedly halting Notre Dame discussions over the new top-12 ranking stipulation felt petty. Moving past that would be a win for all parties. Illinois vs. USC Prediction, Odds for College Basketball on Wednesday, Feb. 18Notre Dame-USC Rivalry: Actual Hope for Rivalry Rebirth or More Smoke from LA?
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