The Southern California Crosstown Cup is a year-long all-sports college competition between the UCLA Bruins and the USC Trojans. While UCLA and USC have had a sports rivalry since the 1920s, the official yearly head-to-head all-sports competition began with the 2001–2002 season as the Lexus Gauntlet. After the 2008–2009 season, Lexus' sponsorship ended. For the next five seasons USC and UCLA continued to keep track of the scores and yearly winners. Without an official sponsor, the competition was referred to as the Crosstown Gauntlet from fall 2009 to spring 2014. Starting with the 2014–2015 season, the series was sponsored for two years by The Southern California BMW Centers and renamed the SoCal BMW Crosstown Cup. Since the 2016–2017 season there has again been no official sponsor and the competition has been referred to as the Crosstown Cup.

The USC Trojans are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. While the men's teams are nicknamed the Trojans, the women's athletic teams are referred to as either the Trojans or Women of Troy. The program participates in the Pac-12 Conference and has won 136 team national championships, 112 of which are National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national championships. USC's official colors are cardinal and gold. The Trojans have a cross-town rivalry in several sports with UCLA. However, USC's football rivalry with Notre Dame predates the UCLA rivalry by three years. The Notre Dame rivalry stems mainly from the annual football game played between these two universities and is considered the greatest intersectional rivalry in college football. The Trojans also enjoy a rivalry with the Stanford Cardinal. The USC Trojans are considered one of the most successful college athletic programs of all time.