It began with a train ride and a conversation between two women. In 1925, USC athletic director Gwynn Wilson and his wife Marion attended a Notre Dame game in Lincoln, Nebraska, where the Irish lost to the Cornhuskers 17–0. On the train afterward, Marion told Bonnie Rockne how pleasant Southern California was — and how much nicer a biennial winter trip to Los Angeles would be than staying in Indiana. Bonnie mentioned it to her husband. Knute Rockne, who had previously resisted the series because of the travel involved, agreed. The first game was played on December 4, 1926, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Notre Dame won 13–12. Rockne was quoted as saying it was the greatest game he had ever seen.
What followed is the greatest intersectional rivalry in the history of college football — and one that has now, for reasons that say everything about what conference realignment has done to the sport, been placed on indefinite hold.
Notre Dame leads the all-time series 51–37–5.
What This Rivalry Is Built On
Every great rivalry has geography. Michigan–Ohio State is separated by the Toledo War. Alabama–Auburn share a state and a set of grudges that run generations deep. USC and Notre Dame are separated by over 1,800 miles — Los Angeles versus South Bend, Hollywood versus the Golden Dome, Cardinal and Gold versus Blue and Gold — and they chose each other anyway. That decision, made in 1926 partly for financial reasons and partly because a wife said so, created something the sport had never had before: a major intersectional rivalry that required a cross-country journey, commanded a national audience from its very first game, and elevated both programs by forcing them to be great against someone who was also great.
It is worth noting what else happened in 1926. Notre Dame had attempted to join what was then called the Western Conference — now the Big Ten — as far back as 1926, and was rejected. That rejection, combined with the financial logic of playing USC in Los Angeles every other year, helped push Notre Dame toward the independent model that has defined the program ever since. The USC series and Notre Dame’s independence were born in the same moment, shaped by the same set of circumstances.
No rivalry in college football accounts for as many combined honors. Notre Dame and USC have combined for 22 national championships and 15 Heisman Trophy winners — USC’s eight are the most of any program in college football, Notre Dame’s seven are second. Notre Dame has 102 Consensus All-Americans, the most nationally; USC has 82. Notre Dame has had 546 players selected in the NFL Draft, USC 530, the two highest totals in the sport. Both schools have 46 and 43 College Football Hall of Famers respectively, and 13 Pro Football Hall of Famers each. From 1928 to 1932, one of these two programs won the national title every single year.
The Series
Notre Dame dominated the early decades. USC won control during the golden age of the 1960s through 1982, going 12–2–2 in that stretch behind John McKay and John Robinson, with O.J. Simpson, Anthony Davis, Charles White, Marcus Allen, and the first wave of Heisman Trojans. Notre Dame reclaimed dominance under Gerry Faust and Lou Holtz, winning 11 straight from 1983 to 1993 — the longest winning streak in series history — then remaining unbeaten for 13 straight through 1995. USC roared back under Pete Carroll from 2002 through 2009, winning eight straight as Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, and Reggie Bush turned the Trojans into the most dominant program in the country. Notre Dame regained control under Brian Kelly (8–3 against USC) and Marcus Freeman (3–0 through 2025). Notre Dame has won three straight.
The series has a specific quality that elevates it above most rivalries: the two programs have genuinely spoiled each other’s national title bids across a century. USC handed Notre Dame its first loss in 1938 when the Irish entered ranked No. 1. Notre Dame spoiled USC’s title bids by handing them their first loss in the final game of the season in 1947 and 1952. The 1988 game — No. 1 Notre Dame over No. 2 USC — is the only time in series history both teams entered undefeated with top-two rankings. The Irish won 27–10 and went on to the national championship.
The Games That Define It
1927 — Soldier Field, Chicago: The second game in series history, Notre Dame won 7–6 in front of an estimated 120,000 fans. The series was already a national event before it had played its second game. The 1929 game, also at Soldier Field, drew 112,912 verified attendees — the second-highest verified crowd in NCAA history at the time.
1931 — The Comeback: USC trailed 14–0 in South Bend. Johnny Baker kicked a 33-yard field goal with one minute remaining to win 16–14, snapping Notre Dame’s 26-game unbeaten streak. More than 300,000 fans welcomed the Trojans home in Los Angeles. USC’s student yearbook called it “the biggest upset since Mrs. O’Leary’s cow knocked over that lantern.” The win clinched USC’s second national title.
1964 — The Fertig-to-Sherman Game: Notre Dame entered No. 1, undefeated, leading 17–0 at halftime. Craig Fertig found Rod Sherman on a 15-yard touchdown pass with 1:35 remaining for a 20–17 USC win. It cost Notre Dame a national title shot. John Huarte still won the Heisman.
1966 — 51–0: Notre Dame routed USC by the largest margin in series history. Backup quarterback Coley O’Brien completed 21 of 31 for 255 yards and three touchdowns. It remains the worst defeat in USC history.
1974 — The Comeback: USC trailed 24–0. Anthony Davis scored on a 7-yard pass with 10 seconds left in the half, then took the opening kickoff of the second half 102 yards for a score. The Trojans scored 55 points in under 17 minutes and won 55–24 over the defending national champions. Davis scored six touchdowns.
1977 — The Green Jersey Game: Dan Devine’s Notre Dame warmed up in blue jerseys and then came out of the tunnel in emerald green. The crowd at Notre Dame Stadium erupted. Quarterback Joe Montana led the Irish to a 49–19 win and they went on to the national championship.
1988 — No. 1 vs. No. 2: For the first time in series history, both teams entered undefeated with top-two rankings. Notre Dame won 27–10 and went on to beat West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl for the national championship.
2005 — The Bush Push: No. 1 USC brought a 27-game winning streak into Notre Dame Stadium. Bush rushed for 160 yards and three touchdowns. Notre Dame led with two minutes left. Leinart scrambled toward the end zone with seven seconds left, was stopped, the clock hit zero, fans stormed the field — then officials put seven seconds back on the clock. Bush shoved Leinart into the end zone for a 34–31 win. It was illegal under the rules at the time. The referees awarded the touchdown. The win was later vacated by the NCAA due to the Bush eligibility investigation, but the memory has never been.
2022 — Caleb Williams: USC won 38–27 in LA. Williams completed 18 of 22 for 232 yards and rushed for three touchdowns. He held the Heisman pose late in the game. It was USC’s last win in the series.
2023: Notre Dame 48, USC 20. Xavier Watts intercepted Caleb Williams twice, recovered a fumble, and returned it for a touchdown. Williams threw five total turnovers. Jadarian Price returned a kickoff 99 yards in the fourth quarter. USC’s fifth consecutive loss at Notre Dame Stadium.
2024: Notre Dame 49, USC 35 in Los Angeles — 84 combined points, the highest-scoring game in series history. Two fourth-quarter pick-sixes.
2025 — Game 96: No. 13 Notre Dame 34, No. 20 USC 24 in South Bend, the final scheduled meeting. USC led 24–21 before Jadarian Price returned a kickoff 100 yards to flip the lead. USC did not score again, managing just 85 yards on its final four possessions. Jeremiyah Love rushed for a career-high 228 yards.
The Jeweled Shillelagh
The trophy was introduced in 1952, donated by the Notre Dame Alumni Club of Los Angeles. The shillelagh — a traditional Irish war club, foot-long, made of oak or blackthorn saplings from Ireland — carries a jeweled ornament for each game result: a ruby-adorned Trojan head for each USC victory, an emerald-studded shamrock for each Notre Dame victory. Tie games received a combined medallion until the NCAA instituted overtime in 1996.
The original Shillelagh filled up with medallions after the 1989 game and was retired in a 1995 ceremony — it now sits permanently on display at Notre Dame. A second Shillelagh, handcrafted from a blackthorn in County Leitrim, Ireland, with gold and jeweled medallions made by Images Jewelers of Elkhart, Indiana, was commissioned and introduced for the 1997 season.
Fifteen Heisman Trophy winners have played in this series — eight Trojans, seven Irish — more combined Heisman representation than any other rivalry in college football.
Two Universities, Two Identities
The cultural gap between these programs is as real as the mileage between their campuses.
USC sits at the center of California’s Olympic sports ecosystem — a state that produces more Olympic athletes than most countries. The Trojans have won more total NCAA national championships (137) than any program in history, spanning swimming and diving, water polo, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and baseball alongside football. The Uytengsu Aquatics Center was built for the 1984 Summer Olympics and remains an elite training facility. Four USC athletes have won the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in America. The proximity to the 2028 LA Olympics — for which USC’s campus will serve as the Olympic Village — makes the Trojan athletic environment uniquely positioned for the next generation of dual-sport and post-collegiate NIL opportunities.
Notre Dame’s identity is built on something different: a global brand, a Catholic mission, and an independence that has made it the only major program to play a truly national schedule without conference affiliation. The Golden Dome is recognizable in places that have never seen a college football game. As one of just two FBS independents on the RallyFuel platform, Notre Dame occupies a unique structural position in college football — free to schedule nationally, with its NBC television contract in place since 1991 giving the program a dedicated broadcast window no conference member can match. The RALLY collective, launched in 2024, connects Notre Dame athletes with brand partnerships through a structured agency model that leverages this global reach.
NIL, The Laws, and How Fans Are Now Part of It
USC operates within California’s NIL legal framework — and California matters here because it was the first state in the nation to pass NIL legislation. The Fair Pay to Play Act, signed in 2019 and effective in 2021, pressured the NCAA to open NIL nationally and established athlete-friendly standards that give USC athletes broad rights to monetize endorsements, social media, and appearances. USC’s NIL deals are among the most commercially sophisticated in college sports — the House of Victory collective provides structured baseline support, while the Los Angeles market gives individual Trojans access to Hollywood, entertainment, and corporate partnerships that programs in smaller cities simply cannot replicate. Recruits understand before they arrive that playing at USC means playing inside the largest media market in the country. USC fans can back Trojans athletes directly through RallyFuel.
Notre Dame athletes operate under Indiana’s NIL laws, which govern how student-athletes, colleges, and sponsors must structure deals, disclosure requirements, and compliance reporting. The RALLY collective and a robust global alumni network mean Irish athletes have NIL opportunities that extend internationally in ways most programs cannot match. Notre Dame fans can back Fighting Irish athletes directly through RallyFuel.
Notre Dame operates as an FBS independent, which means its revenue model depends on its NBC deal and bowl game appearances rather than conference distributions. USC joined the Big Ten in 2024, with its $20.5 million revenue sharing cap — one of the structural reasons the traditional late-November Thanksgiving game in Los Angeles became difficult to schedule within the nine-game conference slate. RallyFuel’s weekly college football predictions game lets fans earn points and direct them toward NIL support for their program’s athletes, and the Trophy Case tracks Heisman contenders throughout the season — USC’s eight winners remain the most in college football history, and every game in this series has featured a current or future Heisman winner at some point across the century.
The Pause and What It Means
After the 2025 season, USC and Notre Dame issued a joint statement: “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 rivalry between our two schools is one of the best in all of sport, and we look forward to meeting again in the future.”
What that statement did not say is when. The series is now on hiatus — the first time both schools have failed to play since the World War II cancellations of 1943–45. Notre Dame replaced USC on its 2026 and 2027 schedules with a home-and-home series against BYU. USC is still searching for a replacement non-conference game. Both sides are reportedly working toward resuming the series as early as 2030, when NBC’s Notre Dame contract and the Big Ten’s current media deals both expire, potentially creating a window for a new broadcast arrangement to anchor the matchup’s return.
The scheduling conflict is real and structural. USC’s nine-game Big Ten schedule includes cross-country road trips to Iowa, Maryland, Ohio State, and Washington in a single season — making the additional journey to South Bend in October, or the late-November LA date that traditionally fell on the same weekend as the Michigan–Ohio State game, logistically and competitively untenable under the current format. Notre Dame, as an FBS independent, has more scheduling flexibility on paper but fewer financial levers to force USC’s hand.
The series has only been interrupted before by a world war and a pandemic. What interrupts it now is the structure of modern college football itself — which is perhaps the most telling thing that could be said about what the sport has become.
Notre Dame leads 51–37–5. The second Jeweled Shillelagh sits in South Bend. Game 97 has no date.
