One of college football’s longest-lasting and most storied rivalries will be taking a break in 2026.
After months of negotiations and public posturing, USC and Notre Dame have failed to reach an agreement to continue their rivalry series.
“USC and Notre Dame recognize how special our rivalry is to our fans, our teams, and college football, and our institutions will continue working towards bringing back The Battle for the Jeweled Shillelagh,” the schools said in a joint statement they released Monday. “The rivalry between our two schools is one of the best in all of sport, and we look forward to meeting again in the future.”
USC has now turned its focus to finding a new nonconference opponent to fill out its 2026 schedule. The earliest the two rivals could play again, a person familiar with discussions told The Times, is the 2030 season.
Four months ago, USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen told The Times she was “hopeful” the two schools could come to an agreement to continue the series.
USC had just extended an amended offer to Notre Dame, one that accommodated its rival’s desire for a multi-year agreement. The Trojans had previously been reluctant to lock in a long-term extension, given the uncertainty surrounding the future of the College Football Playoff format.
“We’re trying to extend the series,” Cohen said at the time. “This is an important series for us and for our fans and for our program, and hopefully we get to a resolution that supports and is in the best interest of our program.”
Given the new demands of the Big Ten travel schedule, USC had hoped to move the game to the beginning of the football season. In her recent State of Troy address, Cohen noted, without mentioning Notre Dame by name, that USC wanted to “play our non-conference opponents in the Coliseum as early as possible every year.”
“USC is the only team in the Big Ten to play a nonconference road game after Week 4 in either of the past two seasons,” she wrote. “USC is also the only team to play a nonconference game after Week 4 in both seasons.”
But after appearing for months to be on track for an agreement, discussions around playing the game during Week Zero of the 2026 season broke down in recent weeks.
The rivalry series dates back to 1926 and was only previously paused for World War II. With the exception of the 2020 pandemic-shortened season, the two schools had played for 78 straight seasons. They last met in October, with Notre Dame dealing USC a 34-24 defeat.