Posted on 12/23/2025 5:06:20 AM PST by Red Badger
Notre Dame and BYU, the top two at-large teams left out of this year's College Football Playoff field, have agreed to a home-and-home series beginning next season, which marks a halt in the Fighting Irish's longtime annual series with rival USC for the foreseeable future.
The 2026 game in Provo, Utah, is filling the final spot on Notre Dame's schedule, as the other 11 games have been announced.
Notre Dame and USC have said they want to continue their cherished rivalry, which began in 1926. But USC has expressed concern about the timing of the game, wanting it to be early in the season, when most Power 4 teams play marquee nonconference games.
The USC-Notre Dame game in South Bend, Indiana, typically takes place in October, while the matchup in Los Angeles ends the regular season.
"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," Notre Dame and USC said in a joint statement 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."
The Irish finished No. 11 in the final CFP standings despite 10 consecutive double-digit wins to close the season, while BYU finished at No. 12 after an 11-1 regular season and a loss to Texas Tech in the Big 12 championship game. The dates for the 2026 Notre Dame-BYU game and the 2027 contest (in South Bend) will be announced later.
The teams last met in 2022, as part of a Shamrock Series matchup in Las Vegas, and have played nine times, with Notre Dame holding a 7-2 edge in the series.
Ping!...........
Notre Dame in the top 5 by any objective standard.
With USC, it was Catholics vs. Methodists. In fact, before 1914, the name of USC’s team was the Fighting Methodists. The Methodist Church’s seminary for Southern California was at USC until 1957, and then it moved to Claremont, where it is today a pillar of the Religious Left.
I guess no one gives a damn about tradition and heritage anymore. The annual Road Trip to the Bay Area to play Cal or Stanford, which began more than a century ago, is no more, and the Rose Bowl, our objective each season since 1923, had been degraded and turned into a mere playoff.
Maybe we should go all the way and drop UCLA from our schedule.
What surprises me is that Notre Dame agreed to the first game in Provo. BYU played two 2 for 1 deals in the nineties and the two thousands with Notre Dame winning two games each time. When BYU left the Mountain West to go independent in football, they signed a six game deal with two games in Provo and four in South Bend. After they played two games in South Bend, Notre Dame simply couldn’t find a time to come to Provo. While they did play the one game in Las Vegas, the BYU athletics department felt “they owe us a game here”. It sounds like, despite the tantrum about the playoff, Notre Dame has realized the need to take some risks with their schedule.
An almost 100 year tradition wiped away. Sad. I looked forward to this game each year since the mid 60s. To relive one of my best memories I watched the tape of the 74 game. Two different games in each half.
The Fake Christian Bowl!
I was at the 1974 game, in middle of the student section—the happiest place on earth that afternoon.
The Yell King, who led the yells, announced that Ohio State coach Woody Hayes was in the broadcasting booth on the other side of the stadium. In a month, the Trojans would be meeting up with his Buckeyes in the Rose Bowl, so toward the end of the game, with USC holding a 31-point lead, he led us in the yell, “Woody, you’re next!” That had to be the loudest yell in the history of the Coliseum.
Their schedule was one of the weakest in the top 25. They really need to be part of a conference and play a harder schedule.
And scheduling BYU over USC doesn’t necessarily improve their schedule strength.
Hard to disagree with that. ND should join the Big 10 f0r Michigan and USC before teams start cancelling on them and even NBC isn’t going to want games without historic rivalries.
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