Brice was offered by USC last week prior to receiving his ND offer, and he and especially his dad, were fairly effusive in their praise of USC. They both came across as being very concerned about two things, media coverage of Brice in college, and depth charts. LA being a media capital was one of the items they mentioned as being a reason for liking USC, but they both mentioned depth chart as an issue, as they want to be sure that Brice has a strong opportunity to play.
If the media coverage aspect is only related to actual athletic coverage, then ND certainly equals or surpasses USC in that aspect. If it is “Hollywood related” type coverage, then obviously USC has a great advantage. If memory serves me, Bobby Butler, although not up to the standards of Neon Deion, was a fairly flamboyant personality with both FSU & the Falcons. I’m not a fan of either of those teams, so please correct me if I’m wrong. If I am correct, it would seem like the Hollywood aspect could possibly be a significant factor. Brice clearly stated that he would like to make his announcement at the AAA game in January if he is selected to the team, so media coverage is definitely on his mind.
As far as depth chart considerations, it would seem that ND would have the advantage here, because USC is always loaded, especially if RoJo ends up at WR.
Anyway, this entire article has to be taken as a USC slant because it was written by a USC recruiting site writer, and even he at the end of the article included a direct comment from Brice that said that USC is not his favorite, in fact he does not have any favorites, and he is not really leaning toward any school. His timetable for announcing would be between the end of his senior year football season and the AAA game where he prefers to announce if participating.
In a subsequent interview by a non-USC writer after receiving the ND offer, Brice had nothing but positive things to say about Charlie Weis, Jimmy Clausen, and the tradition of ND. He also reiterated that his recruiting is wide open right now, and he has not made any visits. He also said that he is hoping to visit USC, but that he is going to visit Notre Dame. Take that FWIW, but it is obvious that Brice Butler has a long way to travel along the recruiting road, and ND does have a chance here because Brice certainly indicates that he has an open mind about the entire process. I would also be surprised if this came down to a battle between ND and USC. If ND is in the mix at the end of the day, I would expect that they would be competing against at least 4 or 5 other schools.