USC has offered an amended, multi-year extension to Notre Dame to keep their annual football series beyond this season, and negotiations remain ongoing. USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen said she is really hopeful the new offer, which better accommodates Notre Dame's preference for a long-term deal, will lead to an agreement very soon. USC previously resisted a long-term commitment because of uncertainty around the College Football Playoff and increased Big Ten travel demands, and initially proposed extending the series only through 2026. Notre Dame prefers a long-term lock-in, and public tensions emerged in May. The rivalry has been played 95 times since 1924, and momentum for playoff-model clarity has slowed.
Following public uproar over the potential end of their 100-year old football rivalry, USC has made an amended offer to Notre Dame that would extend their annual series for multiple years beyond this season, USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen told The Times. Negotiations remain ongoing between the two schools, but Cohen said she is "really hopeful" that USC's new offer, which better accommodates Notre Dame's preference for a long-term deal, would lead to an agreement "very soon."
USC leaders were previously reluctant to commit to a long-term extension of the rivalry with Notre Dame, given the uncertainty of the College Football Playoff and the new demands of a Big Ten travel schedule. With the contract between the two schools set to expire, USC initially offered to extend the series through 2026 and revisit its future beyond that at a later date.
But Notre Dame made clear at the time that it preferred a long-term extension, one that locked in the game for years to come. In May, discussions over the future of the historic rivalry, which has been played 95 times since 1924, boiled over into public view as Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua suggested to Sports Illustrated that the Trojans were endangering the future of the series by not agreeing to extend it long term.
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