College football odds: Star-studded Notre Dame should cover vs. USC in head-to-head win totals prop

College football realignment might have led to more revenue for top schools, much-needed expansion of the College Football Playoff and additional opportunities for upstart teams outside of the "power" conferences, but these shifts have also brought some of the most storied rivalries in the sport to an end. One of those rivalries is Notre Dame vs. USC, which has been played every year from 1926 until 2025 with the exception of pauses for World War II and the 2020 COVID pandemic.

USC win totals at DraftKings, where new users get $200 when they spend $5+: This rivalry has been paused until 2030 and while the two programs will not meet on the gridiron in 2026, DraftKings is offering a head-to-head win total prop involving Notre Dame and USC. The Irish are -160 at -2.5 wins compared to USC, while the Trojans are +125 at +2.5 wins. This means USC would cash on the prop if it comes within two wins of the Irish, while Notre Dame would need at least three more wins than USC to win the prop.

This rivalry began in 1926 and had played 96 times since then – including annually since 1946 other than the 2020 COVID season. But they won't meet again, short of a bowl game, likely until at least 2030. Naturally, both sides blamed the other for not renewing the rivalry contract.

Now that USC is in a tough Big Ten, it wanted to play this game among the first few weeks of the season when most schools play the entirety of their non-conference slate. This matchup traditionally had been played in October when in South Bend – the "Bush Push" game is an all-timer – and at the end of the regular season on Los Angeles. Notre Dame apparently had no interest in moving the game up.

And clearly the school had a backup plan in the works for a long time as it quickly scheduled a home-and-home with BYU starting this year in Provo. The Irish and Cougars happened to be the top two at-large teams left out of last year's College Football Playoff field. As a football independent with only five games a season technically spoken for with the ACC, Notre Dame has a ton of scheduling flexibility and had no problem keeping Navy on the slate.

USC doesn't have much flexibility playing nine Big Ten games. It's obviously hard to determine a college football team's strength of schedule, especially in this transfer/NIL era. If we just want to go by combined opposing winning percentage from last season, then the Irish have a huge edge.