Except for the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and three years during World War II, USC and Notre Dame have played each other in every season since 1926.
For now, however, the rivalry between the Trojans and Fighting Irish appears to be on hold. And it seems that Notre Dame’s impending College Football Playoff exception is the primary reason why.
According to Ryan Kartje of The Los Angeles Times, next year’s changes to the College Football Playoff played a key role in USC and Notre Dame being unable to reach an agreement to play each other during the 2026 season. Per Kartje, the Trojans were originally willing to compromise and play the Fighting Irish in November, but later insisted on playing the rivalry game in Week Zero after learning that Notre Dame will be guaranteed a playoff spot if it is ranked in the College Football Playoff’s final top 12 beginning in 2026.
In light of Notre Dame’s agreement re: CFP, which USC hadn’t been aware of, USC reversed course on its plan to compromise and insisted that the ND game be played in Week Zero in 2026.
A source said they felt ND’s agreement was “a material advantage” that could disadvantage USC.
— Ryan Kartje (@RyanKartje) December 22, 2025
While hardly ideal, USC’s trepidation is understandable; as Yahoo’s Dan Wolken pointed out, it’s easy to envision a situation where the Trojans beat the Fighting Irish late in the season, only to still get left out of the playoff in favor of Notre Dame due to the exception. Kartje confirmed that such a scenario was “definitely given consideration” by USC ahead of Monday’s announcement that the two rivals won’t be playing in 2026.
Still, there’s something about the timing of all of all this doesn’t quite add up — most notably that the Big Ten signed off on the new CFP guidelines (including Notre Dame’s top-12 exemption) in March of 2024. To that end, NBC Sports’ Nicole Auerbach reports that all of the conference’s current and incoming schools at the time (including USC) received the full language of the new guidelines, which received “unanimous support” from the league at the time (USC has disputed this).
USC source disputes this. USC cites new information about the MOU (in past few weeks) & CFP selection process overall as key reasons it didn’t want to play Notre Dame late in the season.
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) December 23, 2025
Regardless of who’s to blame, what’s changed since the spring of 2025 and who’s merely doing damage control, the end result —at least for the moment — is all the same: the loss of one of college football’s most storied rivalries. Perhaps that will change when the CFP inevitability expands in the coming years. Or maybe, this is just an unfortunately reality of the sport’s new normal.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.