Right up until Monday morning, there was hope that common sense would prevail in the talks between Notre Dame and USC to keep the historic rivalry going. Unfortunately, for the seemingly billionth time, cowardice and greed overcame any desire to honor those that came before this era of college football.
It was just a week ago that Irish AD Jack Bevacqua made comments that hinted things were moving in the right direction. However, Ross Dellenger was the first to report that things had not only broken down for next season, but it appears there's no real chance of renewing the rivalry until 2030. Make no mistake, that kills this rivalry as dead as ND and Michigan is.
Notre Dame and USC rivalry is dead as BYU steps into the breach
So who were the cowards? It's been clear for a while that it wasn't Notre Dame. They both want to have Power 4 teams on the schedule, and they wanted to honor history. Dellenger reports the culprit was USC, which didn't want the game later in the season.
The Trojans will almost certainly claim that the series isn't over. That they didn't want it to end, and they'll work to keep it going. But a five year gap between games is the end of a real rivalry.
It's not hard to understand why USC didn't want to play this game, and certainly didn't want to play it later in the season. The school has long talked about not wanting to be "punished" for a late season loss.
This is why the CFP era and greed combine with cowardice to end one of the most prolific and interesting rivalries left in the sport.
Notre Dame will go on. They've already scheduled a series in 2026 and 2027 with BYU to fill the hole USC left. That is at least an intriguing matchup considering it's an indepedent facing off against a former independent who happens to be in a Power 4 conference. But even if this becomes something that goes beyond 2027, it won't have the same draw or generate the same interest. Or honor history in the same way the USC rivalry did.