Had a good conversation with someone who's involved in making USC's football schedule and learned a couple of things.
1. Don't expect USC to schedule easier moving forward. The powers that be relish playing the best. Since that won't always come with being in the Pac-12, USC will continue to be aggressive with its non-conference slate. Hence, a rematch with Alabama in 2020.
2. There hasn't been any internal dialogue within the Pac-12 about going from nine conference games to eight. The feeling is, there are too many teams that need the exposure of playing their higher profile conference brethren, and swapping a conference game for a non-conference tilt against a mid-major wouldn't help. (I don't agree. I believe more wins would boost the reputation of everyone. But I'm relaying the rationale I was given.)
3. USC isn't thrilled about playing Stanford in September every year. But there isn't any wiggle room because of the Notre Dame conundrum. I reminded the person I spoke to that if the Pac-12 had an eight-game conference schedule, it would allow for this game to be pushed back to later in the year.
1. Don't expect USC to schedule easier moving forward. The powers that be relish playing the best. Since that won't always come with being in the Pac-12, USC will continue to be aggressive with its non-conference slate. Hence, a rematch with Alabama in 2020.
2. There hasn't been any internal dialogue within the Pac-12 about going from nine conference games to eight. The feeling is, there are too many teams that need the exposure of playing their higher profile conference brethren, and swapping a conference game for a non-conference tilt against a mid-major wouldn't help. (I don't agree. I believe more wins would boost the reputation of everyone. But I'm relaying the rationale I was given.)
3. USC isn't thrilled about playing Stanford in September every year. But there isn't any wiggle room because of the Notre Dame conundrum. I reminded the person I spoke to that if the Pac-12 had an eight-game conference schedule, it would allow for this game to be pushed back to later in the year.
