Lincoln Riley hasn't given Notre Dame football fans much reason to like him. His ability to hide just how close the return of the rivalry was after all is admirable. When he was asked at Big Ten Media Days about whether the rivalry was coming back, he seemed both annoyed and cagey. He gave the impression that there was almost no chance the rivalry was coming back anytime soon. And yet, on Monday morning, the two programs announced they will return to one of the most historic rivalries in sports, granted there will still be a long layoff before that happens.
At the moment, the two schools have agreed to a four-year contract to play home and home. It stands to reason that once that contract is in place, the Irish and the Trojans will find a way to keep it going even longer.
Notre Dame and USC rivalry series is officially back in 2030
The series will officially resume with Notre Dame going to the Coliseum in 2030 and then USC coming to South Bend in 2031. The schools will face off in Week 1 in the first two years of the rivalry, while the agreement will see the two teams square off early in the season, but just when isn’t set in stone for 2032 and 2033.
Those two final years of the contract will see Notre Dame and USC play their home-and-home matchup in either Week 1, Week 2, or Week 3, according to On3’s Pete Nakos.
In reaching this deal, it looks like a compromise where both sides win. However, it’s worth noting that the Trojans seemingly got the better end of the deal. USC has long wanted to move the series from the middle of the season to earlier in the year. Their insistence on playing in Week 0 was one of the big details holding things up.
Notre Dame, on the other hand, wanted badly to keep it later in the season, keeping it where the matchup has been historically. The Irish are bent on playing it early in the year, though not always in the first week, to bring the series back.
By not restarting the rivalry until 2030, USC might also get another concession. Riley’s squad has quietly made it clear they didn’t want to play the Irish unless the College Football Playoff expands from 12 to 24 teams.
There’s no guarantee the CFP will expand, but there’s certainly a decent chance the push to go to 24 teams will succeed by 2030.
The real winners in all of this are college football and its fans. There have been far too many stories over the years about the changes to the sport ruining things. This historical rivalry coming back relatively soon shows that there are still some things that are important to those who love the history of the game.
A push from restarted buzz around the rivalry this spring, but the noise died down once summer rolled around. That’s yet another reason why it’s admirable that Lincoln Riley kept a deal that had to be extremely close, if not already done, when he spoke late last week. He’s taken more heat than most about the series being dead. He could have held himself up as a hero if he’d even hinted this was coming.
Notre Dame may have the edge on Riley on the field, but Marcus Freeman may not want to play poker with his rival coach anytime soon.
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