Is Notre Dame USC’s Biggest Rival?

Is Notre Dame, USC’s biggest rival?

Anytime you talk about Notre Dame and use the word “rival” a wide variety of things come to mind to a a lot of different people. While broadcasters love finding any reason to proclaim the matchup they are calling a rivalry, the truth is in the eye of the beholder.

For example, some Notre Dame fans consider Michigan a rival of Notre Dame while others thoroughly dispute this. Some Irish fans will even go as far as to throw Purdue, Navy, Stanford and Michigan State into that mix. There are even Notre Dame fans that say Boston College is a rival.

All that really sounds to me like, is a schedule. Not EVERY school you play is- or even qualifies as a rival.

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The one school that no one can dispute the validity of using the word “rival” with is USC. All answers other than: “USC IS NOTRE DAME’S BIGGEST RIVAL,” are null and void. We may debate, perhaps, a school or two as possibly, maybe being in the rivalry column, but even with those additions and exceptions, it is and will always be Southern Cal (BURN TROY BURN).

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That brings us to the question at hand. USC is Notre Dame’s biggest rival, but is Notre Dame the biggest rival for the men of Troy? After all, the Trojans have a crosstown rival and fellow Pac-12 opponent in UCLA. Could the game against the Fighting Irish be bigger for USC than the Bruins?

According to fellow Fansiders over at Reign of Troy… Yes. While their answer didn’t really surprise me, the matter of fact manner in which they said it, did. Of course, they also use the word “rival” about as loosely as a Notre Dame fan that says Boston College is a rival. USC and LSU as rivals? That’s a little strange in my book.

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Regardless, it’s good to know that the country’s best national rivalry is and will remain to be exactly that in the eyes of both Notre Dame and Southern Cal fans.