SOUTH BEND -- Maybe there's a long-term solution for the Notre Dame-USC football rivalry after all.

According to a report published in the Los Angeles Times, USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen is "really hopeful" the schools will forge a new agreement after the Trojans submitted an amended offer to play for multiple years beyond this season.

"We're trying to extend the series," Cohen told the Times. "This is an important series for us and for our fans and for our program, and hopefully we get to a resolution that supports that and is in the best interest of our program."

Cohen added she hoped the extension would be reached "very soon."

Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua and fourth-year Marcus Freeman have made it clear they would like to keep playing USC annually, but the Trojans had been unwilling to go more than year-by-year after the final scheduled meeting on Oct. 18 in South Bend.

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Formerly the AD at the University of Washington, Cohen has held her current position since August 2023. Bevacqua formally succeeded longtime Notre Dame Jack Swarbrick in late March 2024.

The Trojans began play in the Big Ten in 2024. The nine-game conference slate, along with increased travel burdens, led the school to hold off on committing to a new multiyear deal with the Irish.

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Talks regarding an expanded College Football Playoff format also have complicated future scheduling.

Notre Dame and USC have played 95 times since their first meeting in 1926. Only World War II and the COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted the sport's longest running intersectional rivalry.

According to the Times report, Cohen said "the biggest issue" remains the timing of the annual meeting with Notre Dame. While the Irish are publicly willing to meet anytime each fall, the Trojans are wary of slotting in another trip to the Midwest every other year.

USC went 0-4 on the road in conference play last season.

The traditional alternate-year, late November matchup with the Irish at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is another sticking point as it falls between the annual UCLA-USC game and the Big Ten Conference Championship.

"It's not very typical that a P4 school would travel back and forth across the country for a nonconference game in the middle of October," Cohen told the Times. "Show me who else is doing that and doing the kind of travel we're doing. It's a cool tradition to play at the end of the year, but then those are back-to-back rivalry games with a conference championship -- and our opponent doesn't play in a conference championship."

Moving the Notre Dame-USC game to September, perhaps even at the occasional neutral site, has been discussed as well.

"They have a lot more flexibility in scheduling than we do," Cohen said of the Irish. "We're in a bigger conference that doesn't have the same level of ability to protect us in the way they schedule us for that type of game."

Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.