Marcus Freeman stands firm on USC-Notre Dame football rivalry

The future of the USC vs. Notre Dame football rivalry is an open question amid major changes to how schools look to schedule games in the future.

That question is answered as far as Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman is concerned.

“You want my opinion? I want to play them every single year. When? I don’t care. I don’t care when we play them, start of the season, middle of the season, end of the season. I don’t care,” he said, via The South Bend Tribune.

This year’s meeting between the Trojans and Fighting Irish, set for Oct. 18, is the last game on the current contract between the two schools.

A recent Sports Illustrated report indicated that USC is hesitant to pledge itself to a long-term agreement with Notre Dame, citing concerns over the future of the College Football Playoff format and the Trojans’ existing schedule and travel demands.

“I want to play USC every year because I think it’s great for college football, that rivalry, USC-Notre Dame,” Freeman said.

“Before I even got to Notre Dame, everybody watched that game. Everybody remembers moments from that game that just stick out in their mind.”

Freeman’s remarks echo those of Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua, who said he was seeking to formalize a long-term agreement to play USC every year.

“I think Southern Cal and Notre Dame should play every year for as long as college football is played, and SC knows that’s how we feel,” he told Sports Illustrated.

For its part, USC has stated it wants to continue the rivalry.

“We want the USC-Notre Dame rivalry to continue, which is why we offered an extension of the agreement,” Southern Cal athletic director Cody Worsham told SI.

He added: “It’s a special game to our fans and our institution. We will continue to work with Notre Dame on scheduling future games.”

Freeman’s counterpart, USC head coach Lincoln Riley, also expressed hope that the rivalry would continue, but took a far more pragmatic approach to it, suggesting the game may be a worthwhile sacrifice if the Trojans could benefit somehow come playoff selection time.

“There [have] been a lot of teams that sacrifice rivalry games,” Riley said at the Big Ten Media Days last preseason.

“I’m not saying that’s what’s going to happen, but as we get into this playoff structure, and if it changes or not, we get into this new conference, we’re going to learn some about this as we go and what the right and best track is to winning a national championship, that’s going to evolve.”

Losing a historic rivalry of this pedigree would be another stark reminder of the very strict conditions that schools have to work in in a new environment where playoff selection, and appeasing the College Football Playoff committee, is king.

Known as the greatest intersectional rivalry in college football, USC and Notre Dame have met almost every year since 1926, with World War II and the Covid pandemic being the only exceptions.

Now, to that list of historical anomalies, the very format of modern college football itself could be the decisive factor that puts this great rivalry on the shelf for good.

(South Bend Tribune)

--

Read