The USC-Notre Dame football rivalry was a staple for a better part of 100 years. Beginning next year, though, it will no longer be on an annual basis for at least two seasons.
The development has spread like wildfire across the college football community. On3's Andy Staples, in particular, was outraged upon the decision being finalized.
"What has kept these two teams from playing for most of the past century?" Staples asked. "World War II, and a worldwide pandemic. And, now, scheduling concerns, worries about competitiveness, worries about not making the College Football Playoff? That is what is derailing the rivalry. It’s ridiculous. It’s absolutely ridiculous."
Staples was far from done. Without excluding any rivalry in particular, Staples went deeper about why the magnitude of. The rivalry being lost should be taken much more seriously.
"These two teams need to play," Staples added. "It’s incredibly soft that they’re not going to play each other anymore. All of the things that college football keeps losing? This is one of the worst ones. This is one of the most important rivalries in sports…It’s one of the coolest rivalries in college football. The history of it is amazing. The pageantry of it is amazing. The colors are amazing. The uniforms are amazing. The players who played in this game. Think about that. Think about all of that, and it’s just tossed to the side.”
At the end of the day, despite Notre Dame having its postseason ambitions as almost a foregone conclusion every season, the Trojans are operating from a far different place: scheduling logistics, Staples said.
"I get why they do that," Staples said of the Trojans' perspective. "I get why they wanted to put that game earlier rather than later, because, if you put that in the middle of Big Ten play, and its sandwiched between an Ohio State game and a Penn State game? Well, that’s a lot of body blow theory that your team is going to have to deal with."
The formal Big Ten schedule for. Next season has yet to be released, but. Trips to play the Indiana Hoosiers, Wisconsin Badgers and Penn State Nittany Lions represent a plethora of miles required to meet conference obligations. Therefore, playing Notre Dame in their. New environment is as much of a logistics issue as it may be considered a 2026 college football issue, may be viewed nearly identically.
For now, though, should a resolution be reached, it will probably be a considerable amount of time.
But only time will tell.