Marcus Freeman wants Notre Dame to play USC every year

As of now, this will be the final season on the schedule that has USC vs. Notre Dame, a rivalry that goes back nearly a century between the Trojans and Fighting Irish. Still, Marcus Freeman continues to emphasize his want to continue to play it against one another.

Freeman sat down with Joel Klatt on ‘Big Noon Conversations’ released on Monday. He followed where Klatt was leading him, asking about quality scheduling with his intent to bring up the potential end of their series with Southern Cal.

“I feel like you’re trying to get at a certain team that’s been buzzing,” Freeman said with a smile.

Freeman answered by defining the importance he places on rivalries as an idea. It goes back to high school, if not further, and all the way through college both as a player and now as a head coach for him.

“I mean, you know, you think about rivalries, and I’m sure you can go back to when you played high school football or maybe even before that. I think back to my high school years, right, and I was from Ohio, played at a high school named Hubert Heights Wayne. Our big rival was Centerville Elks. The guys that come from Centerville that you might know – AJ Hawk, Kirk Herbstreit, Mike Nugent, some really great players. But, that was a huge rivalry, right. Then you go to Ohio State and you play Michigan every year,” Freeman recalled. “The thing about rivalry games is nobody cares what the record is. You win that game, you view that season as a success.”

Reporting over the past month is that USC and Notre Dame have been unable to agree on the continuation of their series, which the Irish lead 52-37-5 all-time over the Trojans going back to 1926. Both sides have maintained that they’re all for continuing to play it but the dispute remains with nothing signed between them past this year’s game in South Bend on October 18th. Part of this is likely the difficulty for all programs right now in scheduling to best position themselves within their conference and for the playoff, with that more so affecting ‘SC now that they’re part of the Big Ten as compared to the independent in Notre Dame.

However, Freeman again said that he wants Notre Dame to continue to play USC in one of the better rivalries in college football. He understands the problems they may have in the present and the future of getting it done, but he also understands the importance of its past as well for each program.

“So, for us, yeah. One of them that is continuously brought up here in the last month or so is the rivalry we have with USC,” said Freeman. “Before I ever got to Notre Dame, there’s memories I have in my head of great plays in the USC-Notre Dame rivalry. And, I think it’s important to continue that rivalry.”

“If they ask my opinion, I want to continuously play USC every year, you know,” Freeman said. “It takes both parties to tangle, right, and it’s got to fit both institutions and, you know, they’re in a conference and we’re not. When do we play? All of those different things. But, I think it’s important that we continue to have this rivalry.”

With more and more of the past going away from the game, trying to maintain as much of it as the sport can has become even more important. That leaves it to Freeman at Notre Dame and those at USC to find some solution with only one game against one another left as of now in 2025.