It was announced earlier this month that the longstanding rivalry between the USC Trojans and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish would not be renewed in the 2026 college football season.
Notre Dame is on the wrong end of some negative publicity after being left out of the College Football Playoff due to a low strength-of-schedule ranking.
As such, college football fans were quick to assume the Irish were avoiding scheduling a hard game against USC.
ND shut those rumors down by quickly scheduling the Big 12 runner-up BYU Cougars for a home-and-home.
Then reports began circulating that it was, in fact, USC who cut the cord on the rivalry, deciding that they did not want to play one of the nation’s top teams in the middle of their conference schedule.
The Trojans are set to take on the TCU Horned Frogs tomorrow in the Alamo Bowl, but reporters were more interested in hearing about this feud with Notre Dame.
Head coach Lincoln Riley used his time at the podium to fire some shots at his rival university.
“Notre Dame was very vocal about the fact that they would play us anytime, anywhere,” Riley began. “Obviously them not having a conference affiliation gives them an ability to be pretty flexible with their scheduling.”
“Our AD went back to Notre Dame roughly a couple of weeks ago with the scenario and a proposal that would extend the series for the next two years.”
“We took Notre Dame at their word that they would play us ‘anytime, anywhere.’ That proposal was rejected.”
‘The fastest scheduling act in college football history’
Riley continued venting his frustrations to reporters at the Alamo Bowl, saying that not only did ND not come back to USC with a counteroffer, but that their decision to schedule BYU was made with extreme haste.
“Not only was the proposal rejected, five minutes after we got the call, it was announced that they had scheduled in another opponent,” Riley continued.
“Which, I’ll give them credit that might be the fastest scheduling act in college football history.”
Riley Makes His Final Stance Known
After a belated response, Riley hammered home his final stance on the matter.
“I know there’s been a lot of back and forth on it, I know college football has changed a lot,” Riley said. “But the fact is very, very clear: this can all be settled very quickly had Notre Dame lived up to their word and played us ‘anytime, anywhere,’ we would be playing them the next two years.”
“They did not follow through on it, thus we are not playing them the next couple years. We are hopeful that something can be worked out in the future, that would be fantastic. We at SC love for the game to continue, and we have no problem following through on our promises.”
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