USC coach Lincoln Riley said Notre Dame failed to deliver on its promise to play the Trojans “anytime, anywhere,” quickly rejecting his school’s proposal to continue the historic series in 2026 and 2027.
Riley, speaking to reporters in San Antonio on Monday ahead of the team’s appearance in the Valero Alamo Bowl, laid the blame for the rivalry’s demise at the feet of Notre Dame. The fourth-year Trojans coach said the schools spent months working to find a way to continue the series, which began in 1926 and has been played 96 times since (aside from 2020, the teams have played every year since 1946).
Riley said USC athletic director Jen Cohen presented a proposal earlier this month that Notre Dame almost immediately rejected.
“We took Notre Dame at its word: They would play us anytime and anywhere,” Riley said. “That proposal was rejected. Not only was it rejected, but five minutes after getting the call, it was announced that they had scheduled another opponent. [BYU]what I will attribute to them. This might be the fastest act of programming in college football history. »
USC wanted to play Notre Dame and all of its non-league games in the first few weeks of the season, as most Big Ten teams do. The USC-Notre Dame game is traditionally played in mid-to-late October at Notre Dame, or at the end of the regular season at USC.
On Dec. 22, Notre Dame added a home-and-home series with BYU, this season’s Big 12 runner-up, to fill its final vacancy for 2026 and 2027. The Irish will travel to BYU next fall before hosting the Cougars in 2026. In a joint statement, Notre Dame and USC said they would “continue to work to bring back” the rivalry, but a revival would likely not occur until 2030 at the earliest.
“If Notre Dame had kept its word and played us anytime and anywhere, we would be playing in the next couple of years, and we would be looking to the future and hopefully continuing the streak,” Riley said. “They didn’t follow through on their decision. So we won’t play them for the next two years.”
Riley, who lost three straight games to Notre Dame after beating the Irish in his first season at USC, said he has great respect for the rivalry. He noted that Notre Dame being independent from the FBS gives the school additional flexibility with its schedule that USC does not have as a member of the Big Ten.
In a letter to the USC community last month, Cohen wrote that USC is the only Big Ten school to play a non-league opponent after Week 4 the past two seasons, and that the school must plan primarily with the College Football Playoff in mind. USC has never made the CFP.
“Intentionally making our path to the CFP significantly more difficult than that of our Big Ten peers is inconsistent with our goal of winning championships,” Cohen said at the time.
Riley said he was “hopeful” a deal to resume the Notre Dame series would be reached in the future.
“We at USC would like to keep the game going,” Riley said, “and we have no problem keeping our promises going forward.”
