Notre Dame leads USC 53 to 38 with five ties across 96 games, and for the first time since the Second World War the two are not playing. The series is on hold from 2026 through 2029 and resumes with a Week 1 game at the Coliseum in 2030. From the USC side the record looks less lopsided than the total suggests, because the Trojans’ runs, when they came, were the longest in the rivalry.
| All time series | Notre Dame 53, USC 38, 5 ties |
| First meeting | December 4, 1926, Notre Dame 13 to 12 at the Coliseum |
| Most recent | October 18, 2025, Notre Dame 34 to 24 in South Bend |
| Longest USC streak | Eight, 2002 to 2009 |
| Longest USC unbeaten run | 12 wins, 2 losses, 2 ties from 1967 to 1982 |
| Largest USC win | 44 to 24 in 2008; 38 to 3 in 2002 |
| Trophy | Jeweled Shillelagh, since 1952 |
| Next meeting | August 31, 2030, at the Coliseum |
1931: The Game That Made USC
Howard Jones took the Trojans to South Bend in November 1931 as heavy underdogs against a Notre Dame team that had not lost in 26 games, trailed 14 to 0 in the fourth quarter, and won 16 to 14 on a late field goal. Three hundred thousand people met the team’s train in Los Angeles. It was USC’s first win in the series, the first of Jones’s four national championships, and the moment the program became national.
1974: The Comeback
Notre Dame led 24 to 0 late in the first half at the Coliseum. USC scored 55 points in seventeen minutes of game time, including four touchdowns by Anthony Davis, and won 55 to 24. It is the largest turnaround in the rivalry and the game USC fans of a certain age name first. The Trojans won the national championship that season.
The Two Long Runs
USC went 12, 2 and 2 against Notre Dame from 1967 through 1982, the years of John McKay and John Robinson and four Heisman tailbacks. Then Pete Carroll’s teams won eight straight from 2002 to 2009 by an average of more than three touchdowns, including 44 to 24 in 2008 and 38 to 3 in 2002. Between those two runs Lou Holtz’s Notre Dame went eleven straight, which is most of why the series still tilts to South Bend.
The Bush Push
The 2005 game in South Bend, a 34 to 31 USC win when Reggie Bush shoved Matt Leinart across the goal line as time expired, kept a 27 game winning streak alive and drew 80,795, still the record crowd at Notre Dame Stadium. The play was illegal at the time and is legal now. Our Heisman winners page covers Bush’s season.
The Riley Years
Lincoln Riley is 1 and 3 against Notre Dame, with the 2022 win in Los Angeles that sent USC to the Pac-12 title game and three straight losses since, the last two by double digits. Marcus Freeman’s Notre Dame has beaten USC in three consecutive seasons, the first such run since Brian Kelly’s teams won four straight from 2010 to 2013.
The Pause
The 2025 game was the last for four years. Talks to extend the series stalled through 2025 as USC settled into the Big Ten and the two schools argued over scheduling windows and Notre Dame’s playoff path. The August 2026 agreement covers four games, starting with a Week 1 meeting at the Coliseum in 2030 and alternating through 2033. Until then USC’s schedule has no Notre Dame game for the first time since 1945, and its rivalry calendar rests on UCLA alone.
USC has eight Heisman winners and Notre Dame seven, the two highest totals in the sport. Notre Dame has the most NFL draft picks of any school and USC the second most. Between them the rivals claim 22 national championships. No other pair of schools in the sport carries that much between them.
The Bottom Line
Notre Dame leads USC 53 to 38 with five ties across 96 games, but USC owns the two longest runs in the rivalry, from 1967 to 1982 and the eight straight under Pete Carroll. The series is paused from 2026 through 2029 and resumes at the Coliseum in 2030. Our Notre Dame vs USC page covers the series from South Bend.