Since 1926, only World War II and a COVID Pandemic could stop the football rivalry between Notre Dame and USC.

Until now.

Notre Dame today announced a home-and-home series with BYU in 2026 and 2027. That’s a direct result of negotiations between the two traditional college football powers ending with no agreement on how to continue the series.

The two schools released a joint statement Monday afternoon saying “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. 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.”

At a press conference earlier this month Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua noted he believed the two schools were on the verge of renewing the series with a two-year extension. But according to a report from Yahoo Sports’ writer Ross Dellenger, “USC offieials determined that the (post-Thanksgiving) game date was not ideal considering past decisions from the CFP selection committee in punishing schools for losses, especially those late in the season.”

Dellenger went on to say Bevacqua and USC athletic director Jen Cohen have agreed to work to restart the series in 2030.

In the film “Wake Up the Echoes”, the late John Faccenda intoned “the greatest college football rivalry is all is Notre Dame versus the University of Southern California”. The game has featured 96 meetings, 24 national champions and 15 Heisman Trophy winners.

As for the new series with BYU, exact dates and times were not given.  Given what we already know of Notre Dame’s 2026 schedule, don’t be surprised if that game is played in Provo in November.