After pausing USC rivalry, Notre Dame extends series with Stanford

Over the past year, there has been much drama surrounding the future of the USC-Notre Dame rivalry. While the two college football blue bloods have reportedly entered talks to resume the series, the Trojans and Irish will not face each other in 2026, and likely not in 2027 or 2028, either.

However, Notre Dame will still play at least one California school during those years. Last week, the Irish announced an extension of their series with Stanford through the 2028 season. The game will be played in October in South Bend in 2026 and 2028, and Thanksgiving weekend on The Farm in 2027.

Ironically, Notre Dame’s much newer rivalry with Stanford was partially created due to its storied series with USC. The scheduling agreement between the three schools allowed the Irish to host either the Trojans or Cardinal (alternating years) in October every season and end the regular season in California each November. In addition, USC and Stanford both playing a nonconference game later in the year helped balance out the Pac-12 schedule when the two schools shared a conference for over a century.

Now, in a rather ironic twist, the historic USC-Notre Dame rivalry is on hold, while the newer Notre Dame-Stanford series remains. To make matters worse, the Trojans and Cardinal had a strong rivalry themselves, but have not faced off since both schools departed the Pac-12 following the 2023 season. Now, USC fans will have to watch two of their hated rivals continue to face each other, while the Trojans themselves will not get to play either school this fall.