Purdue guy here. Do you domers know what happens to the ND-USC game after 2026? The future schedules of neither team lists the game. My hunch is the the Big Ten is locking the USC-UCLA games as the final game for both schools and the ND-USC game will then be in October every year. Any insider info on this?
ND-USC game after 2026
- Thread starter Quix0te
- Start date
I only can reiterate what Pete Bevacqua stated recently. The USC-Notre Dame series will progress into perpetuity.
If there is one game that should be played every year it’s ND/USC. It would be utter blasphemy if the powers that be ended that rivalry. I don’t care what anyone thinks. Notre Dame playing Southern Cal is “ college football “. Period !
I think we are only insiders in the sense that we usually post from inside our homes.
Pete Bevacqua said USC, Navy, and Stanford are all series that Notre Dame is 100% committed to.
Right, that isn't the issue. I fully agree the series will continue until the end of time. I'm addressing WHEN the ND-USC game in LA will be played. It seems to me the end-of-season game for USC at LA will be moved to mid-season just like when the game is in SB.
Here is what has transpired. For decades, the USC home game vs ND was played at the end of the season in LA. Alternate years, USC played UCLA at end-of season. On the years USC played ND as the final game, UCLA would then play either Cal or Stanford as its final opponent. Obviously, that is no longer an option.
In 2024, UCLA plays Fresno State as its final game. In 2025, UCLA plays USC at LA Memorial Coliseum. In 2026, the UCLA schedule has not yet been established, nor the USC schedule, nor the ND schedule.
The Pac-12 agreed to set up its conference schedule around the ND-USC series. I doubt that the Big Ten has made the same agreement.
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Yeah, the B1G is weird about non-conference games at the end of the year. It strikes me that the ACC and SEC are perfectly content to let games like FSU/Florida and Ga Tech/UGA stay on the final week of the year. The B1G, meanwhile, has already put the kibosh on late November rivalries for Oregon vs OSU and Washington vs WSU when it would have been really simple to leave those games alone.
I'm sure they'll pressure USC to play us earlier. They might even insist that the game happens in the first 3 weeks of the year. It will be a challenge for us to keep balance on our schedule and have quality teams in late October and November.
I'm sure they'll pressure USC to play us earlier. They might even insist that the game happens in the first 3 weeks of the year. It will be a challenge for us to keep balance on our schedule and have quality teams in late October and November.
Yep Juniper, I agree with your comments but we also need to look at this from UCLA's perspective. This upcoming season, UCLA will play lowly Fresno State on the same day in late November that USC plays Notre Dame, probably the foremost rivalry in college football. So why would UCLA agree to continue that insult?
I've expressed a concern about this since the move for SC. Playing ND places another top 10 team on the schedule yearly for them. Not to mention in odd years it means an extra trip to the midwest.
I will say. Definitely yes to SC and Navy. Stanford ? I could care less if they play them. I would to see them get dropped. Bring back Michigan State. Or, put Miami on there again every year. They could use that game to help recruit the state of Florida .
No disagreement here. I'm just hoping UCLA doesn't have very much weight in the overall decision-making!
I completely agree. Playing Stanford is fine, but I've never understood why they sometimes get mentioned in the same breath as USC when people talk about rivalries we are committed to.
Buckey, perhaps you do not understand the situation. Stanford may now be an ACC so-called "conference game" but it is not a Big Ten "conference game". I'm asking if ND expects the Big Ten to take a huge dump onto UCLA in order to perpetuate the ND-USC end-of-season game in LA. I see no reason on God's Green Earth why the Bruins would agree to this.
Quix0te, I think it's completely understandable that the Big Ten and UCLA in particular would push to make USC's final game against the Bruins every year. Buckey might feel differently, IDK. I hope ND and USC push to keep the current arrangement intact, but I'm pessimistic.
I'm curious what you think about other late season games. I don't need our USC game to be on Thanksgiving Weekend every year, but I would strongly prefer to play them later in the season when teams have really established their identities. As a Purdue guy, do you like the idea of playing Notre Dame in the later weeks of the season, or do you like the model of keeping all non-conference games in the first few weeks of the season?
For purposes of maximum TV viewership, I'd prefer to see a few conference games every weekend in August and September while more OOC games are mid-season. That way a game like Illinois-Purdue would end up as a feature attraction on Fox during Week 1 and a game like Purdue-Indiana State would drop down to the Big Ten Network in October.
It would not hurt my feelings to drop Stanford as of as a game. I get nothing out of playing Stanford every year.
With the way college football is nationalizing with all of this NIL money and conference cannibalization I think the location of a college football team (and the locations they physically play at during the season) matters less than ever
If millions of dollars are on the line you'll play football anywhere if the paper is right.
I think this should only be another big benefit in NDs favor on the recruiting trail going forward.
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and SMU, I doubt the ACC will exist long enough to get through the current roster. see below
Check your future schedules. ND plays USF and Florida and Miami in 2031 plus Florida and FSU and Miami in 2032.
Maybe because the last 15 years the matchup on the field has been a damn good one. Maybe because the football players at Stanford actually attend class, and the two programs are aligned academically, which carries a lot of weight in South Bend.
2032 seems unlikely
True but not because of that. The admin got stuck on Stanford when none of those were true.
So freakin what. ND has dominated Stanford for the most part. Seriously who wants to keep playing them?
To me the most curious annual opponent is Navy. I understand that the Dept of the Navy designated Notre Dame as a training center and provided crucial financial support during WWII. However that was the Dept of the Navy, not the US Naval Academy. Seems like a better way to reciprocate would be to expand Navy ROTC on campus.
I like Navy and all but it’s not much of a rivalry. ND has just dominated Navy forever. Stanford has never been a “rival” to ND. I’d rather play Purdue, Michigan and MSU then a Stanford
