USC released its 2020 football schedule Thursday, and interestingly the Trojans have no consecutive home or away games, alternating between the Coliseum and road venues each week.

It's the first time that's happened for the program since 1969.

As fans already knew, the Trojans will open the season Sept. 5 in Arlington, Texas, for a neutral site showdown with Alabama before their home debut a week later against New Mexico.

Then comes the Pac-12 conference slate -- at Stanford, home for Arizona State, at Utah (on a Friday night), home for Cal, at Arizona, the bye week, home for Colorado, at Oregon, home for Washington, at UCLA and then the non-conference rivalry showdown against Notre Dame in the Coliseum.

USC and Alabama are meeting in the Advocare Classic at AT&T Stadium to start the season just as they did in 2016, when the Crimson Tide won 52-6.

The game delivers a big payday to both schools -- it's reported that Alabama will receive $6 million, while USC's payout has not been reported.

That leaves only one non-conference game against a lower-level opponent -- a New Mexico team that went 2-10 last fall.

The Trojans' scheduling strategy has been under scrutiny among fans. With Notre Dame on the slate each year and a nine-game conference schedule, there is not really upside for USC to schedule another tough non-conference opponent. Case in point, last season the Trojans lost at BYU in a game that helped sap any early season momentum for the program.

All told, USC faces four teams that finished with at least 11 wins in 2019 -- Alabama, Utah, Oregon and Notre Dame -- and seven opponents who won at least 8 games last fall.

Game times and television plans for USC's 2020 games will be announced at a later date. All games will be nationally televised by either the ESPN channels, ABC, FOX, FOX Sports 1 or Pac-12 Networks.

The Trojans are 13-12 over the last two seasons and entering another seemingly pivotal year for coach Clay Helton.