ND Fighting Irish vs. USC Trojans: Battle for the Jeweled Shillelagh

Update (October 16, 2026): This article has been updated with the latest information about the Notre Dame vs. USC college football rivalry.

When Do the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the USC Trojans Play Next?

Notre Dame and USC have not faced off since 2025. The rivalry is on hiatus for 2026 and 2027 after the schools could not agree on scheduling terms. The next scheduled meeting between the teams is August 31, 2030 at the Coliseum. Notre Dame Fighting Irish football tickets and USC Trojan football tickets can be found on their respective team pages.

Are the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the USC Trojans Rivals?

Yes, the USC Trojans and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish have an intense college football rivalry. Despite most rivalries in college football being geographically based, which makes annual matchups easier to coordinate, Notre Dame and USC are nearly 2,000 miles apart. However, the two teams played each other every year from 1926 to 2025, apart from a three-year gap in the 1940s when the game was canceled due to World War II, and in 2020 when the season was disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Who Are the Notre Dame Fighting Irish’s Biggest Rivals?

Due to Notre Dame’s historic success, they’ve generated rivalries with a handful of teams in college football. The USC Trojans are the Fighting Irish’s primary rival, but Notre Dame also has rivalries against the Navy Midshipmen, the Michigan Wolverines and the Michigan State Spartans.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by USC Trojans (@usc_athletics)

Who are the USC Trojans’ Biggest Rivals?

The USC Trojans have two core rivals: the UCLA Bruins and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The Trojans’ rivalries are so intense, their local media coined the phrase “Perfect Day,” a day in which USC wins while both UCLA and Notre Dame lose. USC also has a geographically based rivalry with Stanford.

Game Results Between the Fighting Irish & Trojans

Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. USC Trojans Series History

Regarded as one of the most intense rivalries in all of college football, Notre Dame and USC have played over 90 times between 1926 and 2025, with the Fighting Irish leading the overall series 51-37-5. Notre Dame also has the longest win streak with 11 from 1983–1993. In the last 100 years, both Notre Dame and USC have had wildly successful programs, combining for 22 national championships, 15 Heisman Trophy winners, 184 consensus All-Americans, and 89 College Football Hall of Famers.

Notre Dame won 13-12 in the first annual game. A year later, the Fighting Irish played the Trojans for the first time at Soldier Field in Chicago. Notre Dame also won that game by a single point, 7-6.

The most famous game in recent memory came in 2005, a game dubbed “The Bush Push,” where USC bested Notre Dame 34-31. Controversy struck when the reigning national champion Trojans were driving down the field to score the game-winning touchdown. With 7 seconds left, USC ran a quarterback sneak at the one-yard line. Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Matt Leinart was initially short on his first push, but Trojans running back Reggie Bush pushed Leinart for a second effort into the end zone for the touchdown. The rulebook at the time prohibited such an action, but USC was awarded the touchdown anyway. Of note, USC’s 2005 victory and its 2004 national championship were later vacated due to NCAA violations.

USC won in 2022 during Caleb Williams’s Heisman season, and Notre Dame won the three meetings since then, most recently 34-24 at Notre Dame Stadium on October 18, 2025.

The Jeweled Shillelagh

The winner of the Notre Dame and USC game is awarded The Jeweled Shillelagh, a trophy made out of an oak or blackthorn sapling from Ireland turned into a club and engraved with the phrase, “From the Emerald Isle.” The trophy was first introduced in 1952. For each win, a jeweled ornament is added to the club, a ruby-studded Trojan head for a USC win and an emerald-studded shamrock for Notre Dame.

Where Do the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and USC Trojans Play?

The USC Trojans play at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, one of the most famous venues in the United States. The LA Coliseum has hosted Super Bowls I and VII, as well as the 1932, 1984 and upcoming 2028 Summer Olympics .

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish play at Notre Dame Stadium on Notre Dame’s campus in South Bend, Indiana. The stadium opened in 1930 and has a capacity of 77,622.