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Brady Quinn reacts to reported talks of restoring Notre Dame vs. USC rivalry: 'The dots are being connected'

ns_headshot_2024-clearby: Nick Schultz05/13/26NickSchultz_7

When news broke that Notre Dame and USC’s rivalry game wasn’t going to take place in 2026, Brady Quinn made his thoughts clear on the situation. But amid reported talks of restoring the historic matchup, the Fighting Irish legend shared his reaction.

The Los Angeles Times reported Monday that Notre Dame and USC are in “active discussions” about bringing their rivalry game back. Their previous game contract was up after the 2025 matchup – a 34-24 Fighting Irish victory – and they will not meet this year. The two teams had played every year since 1946, outside of the COVID-impacted 2020 season.

But the timing of the report stood out to Quinn. Rumors are swirling about College Football Playoff expansion, potentially to 24 teams. Because of that, Quinn said, USC could be more inclined to bring the game back.

“So it seems like the dots are being connected now that since this game can’t be played until, probably, around 2030 and most likely the playoff will expand to 24 teams by then, that it would only be appropriate the rivalry comes back and then, again, it’s okay if Lincoln Riley can drop a few more games to Notre Dame,” Quinn said on his FOX Sports radio show. “That’s how this all came about.

“There was a lot of pressure from people who just could not understand it. … Just to reiterate, SC’s timeline was, ‘We’re going to win championships in the Pac-12, until we’re not. We’re going to move everything to the Big Ten. Then, once we move to the Big Ten, we realize, oh no. We can’t really handle all of this. So why don’t we drop the Notre Dame game because we already made our mistake by moving to the Big Ten, so we’re just going to keep doing that because we’re getting paid so much from the Big Ten.’ That’s how this all came about. That’s the reality of where we’re at. It’s that simple.”

In the all-time series, Notre Dame has a 51-37-5 record against USC, including wins in the last three matchups and seven of the past eight. Prior to that stretch, the Trojans won 11 out of 15 games against the Fighting Irish.

Because they will not square off this year, the two teams had to find different opponents on the schedule. Notre Dame announced a home-and-home with BYU beginning in 2026, while USC is gearing up to take on San Jose State in Week 0 this year.