Notre Dame leads USC 53 to 38 with five ties across 96 meetings, and has won the last three. The two programs have produced more national championships, Heisman winners and NFL draft picks between them than any other pair of rivals in the sport. And for the first time since the Second World War, they are not playing each other. The series is paused from 2026 through 2029.
| All time series | Notre Dame 53, USC 38, 5 ties |
| First meeting | December 4, 1926, Notre Dame 13 to 12 in Los Angeles |
| Most recent | October 18, 2025, Notre Dame 34 to 24 in South Bend |
| Trophy series, since 1952 | Notre Dame 36, USC 30, 3 ties |
| Largest margin | Notre Dame 51 to 0, 1966 |
| Longest streak | Notre Dame, eleven, 1983 to 1993 |
| Notre Dame at home | 30 wins, 14 losses, 1 tie |
| Next meeting | August 31, 2030, in Los Angeles |
The NCAA’s official count is 51 to 37 with 5 ties, reflecting Notre Dame’s vacated 2012 and 2013 wins. The figures above are the on field results as both schools report them.
The Pause
The 2025 game was the last for at least four years. Negotiations to extend the series stalled through 2025 as the playoff expanded, USC settled into the Big Ten, and Notre Dame’s guaranteed path to a top twelve seed as an independent became a factor in scheduling. In August 2026 the two schools announced a four game renewal beginning with a Week 1 game at the Coliseum in 2030, a return to South Bend in 2031, and games early in the 2032 and 2033 seasons.
That leaves a gap from 2026 to 2029. The rivalry has been played every year since 1926 except for 1943, 1944 and 1945, when wartime travel restrictions cancelled it, and 2020, when the pandemic did. This is the first time it has been interrupted by choice.
Why the Series Exists
Notre Dame applied three times for membership in what became the Big Ten and was rejected three times, the last in 1926. Michigan and Chicago had led boycotts against scheduling the Irish, and Knute Rockne responded by building a national schedule instead. He put his team on a train to Los Angeles in December 1926, won 13 to 12, and agreed to a home and home. Our page on why Notre Dame is independent covers the rest of that story.
The Jeweled Shillelagh
The winner has received the Jeweled Shillelagh since 1952, a Gaelic war club of Irish oak or blackthorn donated by the Notre Dame Club of Los Angeles. A ruby studded Trojan head is added for each USC win and an emerald studded shamrock for each Notre Dame win. The original ran out of room for gems in 1995 and was retired to permanent display in South Bend; the current one is longer.
The Runs
The series has been decided by long stretches of dominance rather than alternation. USC went 12, 2 and 2 from 1967 through 1982, covering the John McKay and John Robinson years. Notre Dame answered with 11 straight wins and 13 games unbeaten from 1983 through 1995, most of them under Lou Holtz. USC then won eight in a row from 2002 to 2009 under Pete Carroll. Brian Kelly went 7 and 3 against the Trojans, and Marcus Freeman is 3 and 1, with all three wins by double digits.
The Bush Push
USC brought a 27 game winning streak to South Bend in October 2005 and trailed 31 to 28 with seconds left. Matt Leinart’s quarterback sneak from the one was stopped short, then Reggie Bush shoved him across the line as time expired. Pushing a ball carrier was illegal at the time. It is now legal and commonplace, and the 80,795 in the stadium that day remain the largest crowd in Notre Dame Stadium history. Our stadium page covers that record.
Notre Dame has had 546 players drafted into the NFL and USC 530, the two highest totals of any school. USC has eight Heisman winners and Notre Dame seven, the two highest totals in the sport. The rivalry has produced fifteen Heismans and more than twenty claimed national championships between the two sides. Our Notre Dame Heisman page covers the Irish seven.
The Bottom Line
Notre Dame leads USC 53 to 38 with five ties across 96 games since 1926 and has won the last three. The series is paused from 2026 through 2029 for the first time by choice in its history, and resumes with a four game set beginning in Los Angeles in 2030. Our Notre Dame all time record page covers the wider picture.