USC’s Lincoln Riley blasts Notre Dame for rivalry coming to finish

The blame sport is alive and nicely in relation to the storied USC and Notre Dame soccer rivalry.

Talking publicly forward of USC’s Valero Alamo Bowl sport vs. TCU on Tuesday, Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley shed some gentle with some pointed phrases at Notre Dame following the conclusion of the rivalry for the foreseeable future. 

“It’s fairly easy. We each labored for months to attempt to discover a resolution,” Riley stated. “Notre Dame was very vocal about the truth that they might play us anytime, anyplace. Clearly them not having a convention affiliation offers them a capability to be fairly versatile with their scheduling.

“We went again, Jen Cohen, our A.D., went again to Notre Dame roughly a few weeks in the past with a situation and a proposal that might prolong the collection for the subsequent two years. That proposal was rejected. Not solely was it rejected, 5 minutes after we received the decision, it was introduced that that they had scheduled one other opponent, which I’ll give them credit score. That is perhaps the quickest scheduling act in school soccer historical past.”

It was confirmed on Dec. 22 that the collection could be coming to an finish for the foreseeable future as the 2 applications had been unable to succeed in an settlement on an extension for the 2026-2027 season collection.

Whereas USC continues to be seeking to fill out its schedule for the subsequent few seasons, Notre Dame pivoted away from the Trojans by agreeing to a home-and-home collection with BYU, the Huge 12 runner-ups for the 2026-2027 seasons.

One of the vital storied rivalries in school soccer historical past, the Trojans and Preventing Irish have performed 96 instances since 1926, when the primary sport was performed. They’ve missed 4 video games throughout that point: 1943-45 on account of World Battle II and in 2020 as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.

USC trails the all-time collection 36-30-3 after falling 34-24 to the Preventing Irish earlier this yr. 

“We took Notre Dame at their phrase that they might play us anytime, anyplace,” Riley stated. “Had Notre Dame lived as much as their phrase and performed us anytime, anyplace, we’d be enjoying within the subsequent two years, and looking out forward after that, hopefully persevering with the collection.”