USC made the only decision it could by pausing the Notre Dame series and that's too bad

USC and Notre Dame will pause their annual series until at least 2030 after both sides failed to reach an agreement. Notre Dame announced it will pivot to a home-and-home series against BYU.

The Trojans currently have 11 games scheduled for 2026 and are in need of another non-conference game to go along with Fresno State and Louisiana. USC has five conference road games and will likely be looking for a seventh home game or possibly a neutral-site game in Los Angeles (SoFi Stadium) or possibly Las Vegas. 

The future of this series could look different

I don't believe that USC and Notre Dame can continue to play a home-and-home with college football constructed as it currently is. USC has conference road games in 2027 against Iowa, Maryland, Ohio State and Washington, which means at least two trips at least two time zones away. Adding an October road game at South Bend would probably mean three trips. How is that healthy for the Trojans? 

Will this series continue? Yes, I truly believe that the Trojans and Irish will play in 2030 and moving forward. Can it still be a home-and-home series? Maybe, maybe not. I could see a world where it becomes a permanent neutral site game. Can it be played in Las Vegas annually? Or maybe two-year increments in Las Vegas, then Chicago, then Los Angeles and after that maybe Indianapolis? 

Taking the game away from the campuses isn't ideal, but continuing the series as it was constructed isn't ideal either. USC is in a big conference now that stretches over three time zones and the decision makers for the Trojans have to deal with that reality. 

It doesn't really matter who's at "fault"

Naturally, after the announcement was made, both sides went into damage control and want to blame each other because that's the nature of the beast. Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports reported that USC wanted to change the date of their home game because, historically, the CFP punished teams for late-season losses. 

"USC officials determined that the game date was not ideal considering past decisions from the CFP selection committee in punishing schools for losses, especially those late in the season."

Ross Dellenger, Yahoo! Sports

As the USC/Notre Dame schedule traditionally went, the Trojans would play in South Bend around mid-October and the Los Angeles game was held in the last week of November. At the end of the day, USC athletic director Jen Cohen's primary job is to look out for the best interests of USC athletics, much like Pete Bevacqua's is tasked with the same thing for Notre Dame.

Unfortunately, because of so many changes in college football with the expansion of the playoffs, the nine-game conference schedule, Notre Dame being continuing its independent status, etc. etc., it just didn't work out.

Yes, this is a big loss for college football, but the USC-Notre Dame series isn't finished, it's just taking a break.