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.
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.