Is the future of the USC-Notre Dame rivalry series in jeopardy?

INDIANAPOLIS -- The USC-Notre Dame series dates back to 1926 as one of college football most historically significant rivalries. Aside from three years during World War II and the 2020 pandemic season, the Trojans and Fighting Irish have clashed every year for nearly a century.

But could that rivalry series be in jeopardy of ending in the near future as a result of the changing landscape of college football?

USC coach Lincoln Riley certainly left the door open for that when asked Wednesday during Big Ten Media Days if he wanted to continue the annual series with the Irish.

"I would love to. I would love to. I know it means a lot to a lot of people, so again, the purist in you, no doubt. Now, if you get to a position where you have to make a decision on what's best for 'SC to help us win a national championship vs. keeping that, shoot, then you gotta look at it," Riley said, being surprisingly candid on the matter.

"We're not the first example of that. Look all across the country -- there's been a lot of other teams sacrifice rivalry games. I'm not saying that's what's going to happen, but you know, as we get into this playoff structure, and if it changes or not, we're in this new conference, we're going to learn something about this as we go. And what the right and the best track is to winning a national championship, like, that's going to evolve."

Riley continued by pointing out the scheduling strategy Alabama has long employed of having a non-conference game vs. a lower-tiered program (like Chattanooga last year) the week before its big rivalry game with Auburn to close out the regular season.

"Bama was ahead of the curve for years, I thought, with how they scheduled in the non-conference. They would occasionally hit the marquee non-conference game, they'd play two other not very good teams, they'd play one late so they got essentially a bye week there late in the season when your season's been going on, you're a little beat up. They didn't schedule for their fans -- they scheduled to win championships," Riley said.

"My hope is we can do the best thing, schedule to win championships, and that includes a rivalry game for all that comes with that and all that it means. But if you get in those positions you gotta make a decision on what the priority is. It's not an easy answer."

Riley suggested that could all hinge on the future structure of the College Football Playoff and how the selection committee adjust to the conference consolidation and emergence of two super conferences with the expanded Big Ten and SEC.

College football moves to a 12-team playoff format this year with the five highest-ranked conference champions receiving automatic bids and the seven highest-ranked teams remaining rounding out the field, with the top four teams receiving a first-round bye.

"There's no question, losses -- no matter who they're to -- have outweighed everything else, and history has taught us that. Now that you have two super conferences -- or whatever you want to call these, you've got two conferences that are way out in front of everybody else right now, all right? -- there's going to have to be a shift in thinking. Like, there has to be, or it won't work," Riley said. "So how much value do they place on the ninth game? How much value do they place on playing Notre Dame vs. some directional school? It's going to have a big impact on how we all schedule in the future, so if they want these matchups then they need to value them accordingly."

Not only does USC have its nine-game Big Ten schedule loaded with marquee matchups and the Notre Dame game at the end of it all, but the Trojans this season also open with a challenging non-conference opponent in LSU.

Riley suggested such matchups may quickly become a thing of the past in college football.

"I think if the playoff stays the way that it is right now, then I think you'll see less and less of those," he said. "Especially with us and the SEC, just because our schedules are already going to be so good, at some point you're like, all right, is the juice worth the squeeze, right, in terms of playing these games? As competitors, we all want to play these games.

"Now, if and when the playoff shifts again, if you start talking about if something were to happen -- let's say even more guaranteed spots in some of these conferences, then I think it could lend itself to these games being back and more prevalant. Which would be good for the game, because games like this are awesome."

Riley acknowledged that "to my knowledge, yes," that's why the USC-Ole Miss football series scheduled for 2025-26 was cancelled.

"You've got a responsibility to what you think is going to put you in the best position to do it. We probably have just about as good an argument as anybody in college football because we've got a yearly game against a good opponent in Notre Dame along with this schedule," Riley said. "... The hard thing right now with all the scheduling is you're having to make scheduling decisions so many years in advance, and then all this is changing and you're not exactly sure what system that you're scheduling for."

Riley had some other interesting thoughts on managing a team through what could potentially be a 17-game season if a school plays its 12 regular-season games, a conference championship game and then as many as four rounds of the playoffs (if not receiving a bye and yet still making it to the championship game).

Will coaches have to consider resting starters late in a season like NFL teams do ahead of the playoffs?

"We've never had to even think that way, right, and now it's going to be interesting. You're going to get put in some interesting positions, right?" Riley said. "Like take us our first year at 'SC, we beat UCLA, we're in the championship game, we play Notre Dame before the championship game, what do you do now? Obviously, you go, but I mean like, you're going to be thinking that way some, especially considering you may have however many games left and you're going to have to place value on those. We see it in the NFL now, we see it in other sports, we're going to be in those positions where we're going to have to make decisions. Hopefully we put ourselves in that position pretty quick. Yeah, it all be part of the strategy now. ...

"Let's say you've already qualified for the conference championship, but you aren't going to be a No.1 or No. 2 [playoff] seed, you've already lost a game or two and you had a marquee game against like Notre Dame coming up, how do you handle that? It's interesting to think about. We've started to have some initial conversations about those scenarios. Now, where your roster's at at that point, there's so many factors that go into it, it's hard to sit here and say today what you would do. But do those things cross your mind? Yes"