One of college football’s most hallowed rivalries will continue on, after all.

After months of back-and-forth negotiations, USC and Notre Dame announced Monday that they’ve agreed to a four-year series beginning in 2030 when the Irish will open the season against the Trojans at the Coliseum. The following year, the teams will play in Week 1 at Notre Dame Stadium and the two games after that will be played somewhere between Week 1-3 of the 2032 and 2033 seasons.

USC ended up getting exactly what it asked of Notre Dame more than a year ago, when the two sides first sat down to talk about renewing their rivalry series. USC’s leadership sought to shift the game to the beginning of the season, first offering to play during Week 0 of the 2027 season. But Notre Dame rejected multiple scheduling offers.

That changed in recent weeks, as Notre Dame opted to cancel a home-and-home series with Indiana in 2030 and 2031 to accommodate their longtime rival.

“We felt like the best thing for our program was to play this game early in the season,” USC coach Lincoln Riley said. “As I’ve said publicly, we’re a part of a conference. We have a conference schedule to answer to. We don’t make our own schedule, we don’t choose our own kickoff times. And so with that, we have much less flexibility and so it made more sense for us to play this game in a traditional nonconference window.”

USC held strong to its demand to play early in the season. Even as Riley took jab after jab for running away from one of college football’s most prestigious rivalries, the coach remained steadfast in noting the inequity in their schedules, with USC facing Notre Dame amid a grueling Big Ten schedule.

Notre Dame, meanwhile, wanted a long-term agreement to keep the game during the same late-season slot in which the series has always been played. Their dispute played out in a series of public relations missives, starting last May, when Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua suggested to Sports Illustrated that the rivalry was in jeopardy because USC didn’t want to continue it.

But after halting negotiations, then returning again to the negotiating table, both schools found a way to reach an agreement announced Monday.

“USC’s historic rivalry with Notre Dame holds a special place in the history of college football,” USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen said in a statement. “And we are happy to resume [a] series that means so much to the entire Trojan Family.

“I think this benefits everyone,” Riley said. “I think this benefits USC. I think this benefits Notre Dame. I think this benefits college football. This is important. We know it’s important to our fan base, we know it’s important to alumni, we know it’s important to former players and coaches.”

USC owns a 37-53-5 all-time record against Notre Dame, excluding the Trojans’ 2005 victory, which was later vacated because of NCAA sanctions (original record: 38-53-5). Riley is 1-3 during his Trojans tenure against the Irish. The teams battle for the Jeweled Shillelagh.

And while the two rivals won’t face each other again for another four years, that hiatus now at least has an end in sight.

“We want to play this game,” Riley said. “That has never changed. That will never change. But we also want to stand up for USC and do what’s right for us, and the fact for us is our conference and a lot of things have changed. Our desire to play this game … has never been questioned and never will.

“We’re glad we finally got to a place where we got the other side to agree.”

USC wideout Tanook Hines, who is sitting out with an injury to start preseason camp, said Monday that he expects to be ready for the season. … Lead running back Waymond Jordan, who sat out the second half of last season, said his surgically repaired ankle is 100% at the start of camp. ... A starter on last year’s offensive line, Alani Noa said he left USC’s football program during the bowl game last season because of “personal problems at home” and that there was never a question that he’d return to the team.