Pac-12 history includes memorable moments versus Notre Dame

The last Pac-12 sporting event – more precisely, the last gathering of Pac-12 teams on the same playing field – has ended. The Pac-12 Baseball Tournament was the last Pac-12 event. We won’t see another such event unless or until the conference is …

The last Pac-12 sporting event — more precisely, the last gathering of Pac-12 teams on the same playing field — has ended. The Pac-12 Baseball Tournament was the last Pac-12 event. We won’t see another such event unless or until the conference is reborn several years from now. Schools are scattering into the Big 12, Big Ten, and ACC. The conference as we have known it is now part of the history books. It exists in the past tense, with no new season to look forward to this coming fall. Part of the Pac-12 goodbye tour here at Trojans Wire needs to include a look at the conference’s history against Notre Dame. USC-Irish football memories stand out the most, but what other Pac-12 memories emerge from the league’s history against Notre Dame? Let’s take a look at non-USC moments involving Notre Dame and the Pac-12, in addition to some USC-Notre Dame football memories:

This enabled Notre Dame to make that season’s national championship game, which is part of why the moment is legitimately significant in a larger historical context.
This knocked Notre Dame out of the College Football Playoff, which makes the event especially resonant.
A classic game between elite programs and head coaches with a Final Four berth on the line.
Bill Walton, who died Monday at age 71, was part of this remarkable moment in the history of Pac-12 (formerly Pac-10 and Pac-8) sports. The streak ended, but the fact that UCLA reached 88 wins in a row is simply mind-blowing. It’s one of the many epic achievements of the UCLA dynasty under John Wooden.
The 1925 Rose Bowl in which Notre Dame beat Stanford was one of the most important games in the history of college football. It featured Notre Dame’s iconic Four Horsemen and Stanford head coach Pop Warner, but it also drew Notre Dame to the West Coast, which planted seeds that led to the creation of the USC-Notre Dame football rivalry between coaches Howard Jones and Knute Rockne. The 1925 Rose Bowl helped made college football a truly national sport played across the whole of the United States.
The older, bigger version of Stanford Stadium hosted its last game in 2005, with Notre Dame beating the Cardinal. That stadium was demolished and rebuilt. It’s a notable marker in the Notre Dame-Stanford series.
Fighting Irish Wire writer Geoffrey Clark personally enjoyed Notre Dame’s dismantling of Caleb Williams and USC last season. An Irish Wire writer would naturally think that. However, we want to make sure you follow Irish Wire. Clark himself produced a high-quality — and very respectful — gallery of photos he took on a trip to the Los Angeles Coliseum. We encourage you to check it out.
The first Notre Dame women’s basketball game shown on NBC was against Cal. It’s another one of Geoffrey Clark’s top selections for Notre Dame-Pac-12 moments.
One more pick from Clark and Irish Wire: the 2012 game which enabled Notre Dame to complete a perfect regular season.
Okay, enough of the Notre Dame wins. We’re saving the best for last and the USC wins over Notre Dame in football. The 1964 game is one of the biggest wins for the Trojans. It was a restorative win for John McKay at the end of a tough season. It gave the program momentum heading into the mid-1960s. It also knocked the Irish out of the national championship hunt.
USC’s last-second win kept alive the Trojans’ national title hopes. USC did win the 1979 Rose Bowl to gain a split of the national championship with Alabama. This is one of the underrated USC-Notre Dame football games, largely because of the game we will mention next:
4th and 9. The Bush Push. Two iconic college football programs created a game packed with electrifying moments, supreme drama, and a heartstopping finish. This is as good as it gets, both for USC and for Notre Dame’s collection of Pac-12 sports moments.