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The rivalry between the Notre Dame football team and USC is one of the most iconic in college football, but there is a chance that the 2025 edition is the last one for a while. The two teams don't have an agreeement locked in for future matchups, and the Trojans are reportedly concerned about continuing the series because of the increased travel that has come with their move to the Big Ten, and also the uncertainty surrounding the College Football Playoff. One thing is certain though: Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman wants to keep the rivalry going.
“It’s pretty black and white for me,” Marcus Freeman said on Thursday, according to an article from On3. “You want my opinion? I want to play them every single year. When? I don’t care. I don’t care when we play them. Start of the season, middle of the season, end of the season — I don’t care. I want to play USC every year because it’s great for college football.”
Rivalries like this one are what make college football so great. The iconic uniforms, iconic players, iconic stadiums, iconic coaches, iconic moments — you name it. Notre Dame-USC has it all.
“Everyone remembers moments from that game that just stick out in my mind,” Freeman added. “[Notre Dame director of athletics] Pete [Bevacqua], or [deputy director of athletics] Ron [Powlus] or anybody asks me, that’s how I feel. Everybody knows that’s how I feel. But also, I’m not the one dealing with the administrative part of scheduling games. But I think it’s important we continue this rivalry.”
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Setting the actual game aside, this rivalry is also important to Freeman and Notre Dame for recruiting purposes. They want to continue to get that exposure on the West Coast.
“We’re such a national brand,” Freeman said. “We recruit coast to coast. We’ve done a really good job in the state of California, the West Coast. More than that, all of the west coast. Hawaii. California. Wyoming. Keep going. It’s important that they understand that we play coast to coast. New York to California. We go to Florida this year. We’re in Texas. That’s what Notre Dame does. To eliminate that, it really wouldn’t be beneficial to our program.”
We'll see if the Notre Dame football team and USC can come to an agreement to continue this historic rivalry. Marcus Freeman has made it clear that he wants it to continue, but that doesn't guarantee anything.
