Six months after one of college football’s most storied rivalries stalled, USC and Notre Dame are in active discussions to resume play, The Times has learned.
It’s not clear yet when the rivalry series will return or what the terms will be. A person familiar with the discussions not authorized to talk about them publicly told The Times that Notre Dame is now willing to discuss playing the game earlier in the season, which had previously been a sticking point
Given future scheduling agreements, it’s possible that the two schools still won’t meet again on a football field until the 2030 season.
But at least they’re back at the bargaining table, and a person familiar with the discussions told The Times that they were optimistic a deal could be reached.
That shift in tone comes after a year of both schools playing chicken, with each side refusing to blink during negotiations over the future of the series. USC wanted to move the matchup to the start of the season, in line with the rest of its nonconference schedule, while Notre Dame wanted a long-term agreement to keep the game during the same late-season slot in which the series has always been played. Their dispute played out in a series of public relations missives, starting last May, when Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua suggested to Sports Illustrated that the rivalry was in jeopardy because USC didn’t want to continue it.
The two schools were close to an agreement at the end of last season, with USC indicating it was willing to compromise and stick with the rivalry’s usual cadence over the next two seasons. But a source told The Times that USC officials were not aware of terms in an agreement Notre Dame negotiated with the College Football Playoff guaranteeing the Irish a playoff berth if they finished in the top 12 of the final rankings.
USC considered that a “material advantage” to its rival and pulled its offer to Notre Dame. USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen made one final offer to continue the series in December, but Notre Dame declined it, immediately announcing a new home-and-home series with Brigham Young to replace the Trojans.
“The fact is very, very clear, and this can all be settled very quickly — had Notre Dame lived up to their word and played us anytime, anywhere, we would be playing them the next two years and looking ahead after that and hopefully continuing the series,” USC coach Lincoln Riley said in December after the Trojans’ bowl loss. “They did not follow through on it. Thus, we are not playing them the next couple years.”
But that hiatus, it turns out, may not last as we once thought.
And with that breaking news outlined, we welcome you back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where we’re glad to see cooler heads prevail between bitter rivals. The feeling at both USC and Notre Dame was that this game was always going to come back — too much money was involved not to resume play — but the fact that they’re back to talking about it this quickly gives me some hope for the future.
If you have comments, questions, concerns about the newsletter as we wind down this season and transition to our summer delivery schedule (roughly every three weeks), I’m always happy to hear what you’re looking for during the year ahead. Feel free to email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com with your thoughts.
Could Mason Edwards’ 2026 campaign be the best ever for a USC pitcher?
USC pitcher Mason Edwards has delivered an elite season on the mound for the Trojans.
(Shotgun Spratling / For The Times)
Single-season pitching is a pretty competitive category at USC. After all, this is the school that produced Hall of Fame pitchers like Randy Johnson and Tom Seaver. But as things currently stand, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say Trojans southpaw Mason Edwards is on pace to be remembered for one of the great pitching performances in the Trojans’ storied baseball history.
At the very least, Edwards has been the best pitcher in college baseball this season. He leads the nation in strikeouts (142), 26 ahead of the pitcher in second place. He’s already shattered the Big Ten single-season strikeout record. His ERA is second-best in college baseball among qualifying pitchers at 1.61, while opposing batters are hitting just .142 against him (lowest in baseball).
So where does that stack up in the history of Trojan baseball? Well, the undisputed No. 1 in this category previously belonged to Mark Prior. In 2000, he was 13-1 with a 1.49 ERA, 166 strikeouts and an opponent batting average of .182. Then, he followed up that season by going 15-1 with a 1.69 ERA in 2001, striking out 202 (!) batters while walking just 18 (!!) and winning a pile of Player of the Year awards in the process. It’s hard to argue with that dominant stretch.
If you’re wondering, the lowest ERA in school history — a microscopic 1.16 ERA — belongs to Greg Widman in 1970, but for the sake of this argument, let’s focus on the modern era of baseball when stats are more readily available.
Some other great pitching seasons at USC: Seth Etherton tallied 182 strikeouts in 1998. Barry Zito, pitching as the No.1 between Etherton and Prior, had 156 strikeouts in 1999. Ian Kennedy, in 2005, was 12-2 with a 2.55 ERA and 158 strikeouts in 117 innings.
The big difference between Edwards and those other great Trojan pitchers is the total innings pitched. Edwards has been on the mound for just 78 ⅓ innings this season. That number will climb some over the course of the next month, but it’s not going to catch the likes of Prior, who finished the 2001 season with nearly double the innings.
But if we’re talking on a per-nine inning basis, there’s a compelling case to be made that Edwards has been harder to hit. He has a better ERA, a lower opponent batting average, and he’s currently striking out better than 16 batters per nine compared to Prior’s 13.
Edwards’ rate is roughly in line with Paul Skenes, the Pittsburgh Pirates ace, who had the best pitching season in recent college baseball history at LSU in 2023, then went on to become the No. 1 pick in the MLB draft.
USC coach Eric Musselman directs his team during a game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Jan. 9.
(David Berding / Getty Images)
—USC’s men’s basketball roster for 2026-27 is complete. Eric Musselman spent the last couple weeks filling out his bench, after locking in high-priced targets early in the transfer portal window. The approach ended up working out quite well, as USC didn’t end up overpaying at the front end. So when the money dried up in the market late, Musselman had the pick of several intriguing options at the end of his rotation. Among them, Musselman brought in Aussie stretch big Joshua Hughes from Evansville, wing/forward Jadis Jones from Lindenwood and guards Isaac Bruns from South Dakota and Aaron Hunkin-Claytor from Hawaii.
—USC will play Fresno State on Friday night this September. The game will kick off the Labor Day weekend slate, which is probably a good thing for those of you trying to get the game out of the way before kicking back the rest of the weekend. But getting USC fans to the Coliseum is going to be a challenge. The kickoff time is still to be announced, but I’d expect 6 p.m. Not exactly ideal for traffic.
—USC baseball finished with its best home record in program history. Considering the history of the program, that’s a pretty impressive feat. The Trojans went 32-1 in their debut season at renovated Dedeaux Field. Next up, will they host a regional? That depends on this weekend’s series against Oregon and the Big Ten tournament.
Olympic sports spotlight
The USC women’s tennis had one of its best seasons in recent memory, punctuated by its first Big Ten regular season title and first conference crown overall since 2015. But that run for the 13th-ranked Trojans came to a sudden end in the NCAA super regionals against No. 4 Texas A&M during the weekend.
The Trojans won the doubles point only to lose all five of their singles matches to finish 5-1. Disappointing finish aside, it was a successful season for coach Alison Swain and the program.
What I’m watching this week
Every once in a while, a filmmaker gets an incredible flourish of luck during the documentary process that changes everything. The first example that comes to mind is the tremendous HBO docu-series, “The Jinx,” which got a recorded murder confession from Robert Blake. Another was HBO’s “The Vow,” which gained unprecedented access to members of the NXIVM cult. But Netflix’s latest cult docuseries, “Trust Me: False Prophet,” comes awfully close to those two with its incredible access to a sect of fundamentalist Mormons.
The series begins with a husband and wife filmmaking duo who moved to Colorado City, where many FLDS people still reside, even after their alleged prophet, Warren Jeffs, was sent to prison. In the power vacuum Jeffs left behind steps another man who begins to claim he’s the church’s central connection to God.
While this is happening, the filmmakers gain the trust of the fundamentalist community, and we come along for the ride as they fight to quietly take the church’s leader down. It’s a thrill ride through four episodes, but maybe not the lightest content to watch before bed.
In case you missed it
NCAA to expand March Madness fields to 76 teams
A star pitcher at USC, he was cut after six years in the minors. Then Banana Ball came calling
How USC’s Lindsay Gottlieb reinforced a title contender in the transfer portal
Until next time …
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com, and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
