The two teams will no longer be in the same conference in 2024 and played the last scheduled game of the series on September 9, 2023, with the Trojans winning 56–10.

The teams have frequently vied for the conference championship and a berth in the Rose Bowl.

[5] The rivalry began in earnest in the 1930s after USC had won three national championships in five years.

This game, considered one of the greatest of the 20th century,[9] effectively cost USC a national title (they dropped to #4 in the polls afterwards).

[10] For the 2012 game, the Stanford band leader inexplicably showed up dressed as the USC Trojan mascot.

The competitive atmosphere of the rivalry increased in the early 1990s when Bill Walsh returned for his second tenure as Stanford's head coach, and particularly heated up in 2007 after Stanford hired head coach Jim Harbaugh.

[12] 1–3, unranked Stanford (who had been 1–11 the prior season under head coach Walt Harris) entered the 2007 game as a 41-point underdog against #2 USC, but pulled out a 24–23 win in what has been called one of the biggest college football upsets of all time.

The 2009 game was marked by a post-game verbal confrontation between Harbaugh and USC head coach Pete Carroll, after #25 Stanford capped off its convincing 55–21 win over #11 USC with a late 2-point conversion attempt and another touchdown; Carroll came off the field saying "What's your deal?"

[17] Both teams being ranked entering the game was once a rare occurrence but has become the norm in recent years.