USC recruiting and everything else

[irishjim]

Its fun how USC seems to think that traveling to Notre Dame is a disadvantage for USC, but does not seem to think that Notre Dame traveling to USC is a disadvantage for Notre Dame.

They don't care as they don't want to play the series anymore. They will make it as inconvenient for Notre Dame as they can because they know Notre Dame wants to keep game scheduled.

 

[Crazy Balki]

They don't care as they don't want to play the series anymore. They will make it as inconvenient for Notre Dame as they can because they know Notre Dame wants to keep game scheduled.

Every time I hear a fan, coach, whoever complain about traveling, I have the uncontrollable urge whip out the world's smallest violin.

Wah wah waaaah.

Seriously, ND has been doing this for DECADES and has gotten nothing but ridicule for it. Excuse me if your excuses and complaints are lost on me.

Last year, ND traveled to Texas, New York, New Jersey, Atlanta and Los Angeles. This year, Miami, Arkansas, Boston, Pittsburgh and Palo Alto. Yeah, fuck off with those gripes.

 

[Dale]

Another popular topic for media coverage and national conversation of late has been our non-conference football scheduling.

Our ultimate goal, one that we can all align with, is to compete for and win Big Ten and College Football Playoff championships. Playing nine games annually in the toughest conference in college football to qualify for a playoff for which future selection criteria remain uncertain, we have a limited number of strategic levers to pull in pursuit of that goal.

Non-conference scheduling is among the most important of these levers. Not only is it among the few factors entirely within our control, but who we schedule – and when and where we schedule them – also has a meaningful impact on our program’s record, our student-athletes’ health and wellness, and our preparedness.

First, the when and where: for the well-being of our student-athletes, and to schedule equitably with our Big Ten rivals, we want to play our non-conference opponents in the Coliseum as early as possible every year.

USC is the only team in the Big Ten to play a non-conference road game after Week 4 in either of the past two seasons. USC is also the only team to play a non-conference game after Week 4 in both seasons. Moreover, the only other Big Ten teams to play non-conference games after Week 4 in either the 2024 or 2025 seasons played at home against Group of 5 foes (UCLA vs. Fresno State, 11/30/24; Northwestern vs. UL-Monroe, 10/4/25).

Meanwhile, last year’s College Football Playoff champions finished fourth in the Big Ten and played all their non-conference games at home in Weeks 1-3. An additional road trip in the middle of conference play – without key players – may have stressed their roster beyond its limits or cost them a third defeat and eliminated them from playoff contention. Instead, they qualified despite two Big Ten losses.

Intentionally making our road to the CFP significantly more difficult than our Big Ten peers does not align with our goal to win championships. That said, we want to play meaningful games, and we recognize USC’s unique position in college football history. USC is the only FBS program that has never played an FCS opponent. We embrace challenging matchups – they prepare us for conference play, excite our fan base, and grow our brand and revenues.

That is why, of our three non-conference games each year, we will schedule at least one Power 4 opponent. If that opponent is a rival with whom we share a long and storied tradition, all the better.

Strategic scheduling is a key competitive advantage, and it is one we must align on. If we don’t, we will allow our rivals to leverage us against ourselves, and that can never happen. Trojans are fighters, and we must fight on, together.

Our non-conference scheduling decisions will be based on feedback from stakeholders across the Trojan Family; deliberation with Coach Riley, my trusted staff, and University leadership; and the experience and perspective I’ve gathered from three decades of experience in college athletics. Most importantly, our decision will be based on what is best for the success of our football program.

We are excited about a 2026 home schedule that features conference matchups against Ohio State, Oregon, Washington, and Maryland – as well as trips to Indiana, Penn State, Wisconsin, and Rutgers – and we look forward to sharing news on our non-conference football schedule in the near future.

- AD Jenn Cohen on non-conference scheduling

 

[Dale]

Cry harder. You can’t puff your chest that USC is unique if you’re going to succumb to matching whatever Illinois does scheduling wise.

 

[Bane]

Cry harder. You can’t puff your chest that USC is unique if you’re going to succumb to matching whatever Illinois does scheduling wise.

"Trojans are fighters and that is why we're quitting and fighting on against Fresno St. or Rancho Cucamonga Tech."

 

[Dale]

She also had a long thing about the equity deal.

What if, hear me out, a school was able to translate all this bluster about exercising their value as a brand into not being subject to the will of a dozen other schools?

 

[IrishBryan77]

USC just doesn't want to play in the cold. In layman's terms that simply means they are pussies. 👍

 

[IrishLax]

This is what happens when you hire people who have no ties and no understanding of the school. There is no one holding this woman accountable to what fans/alums want and she's going to be fired within the next 3 years unless Riley pulls a rabbit out of a hat with this roster they are buying him.

 

[Bane]

This is what happens when you hire people who have no ties and no understanding of the school. There is no one holding this woman accountable to what fans/alums want and she's going to be fired within the next 3 years unless Riley pulls a rabbit out of a hat with this roster they are buying him.

Relying on Lincoln Riley to navigate a schedule and win meaningful games in late November/December/January to keep your job has to be an uneasy feeling.

 

[IrishLax]

They don't care as they don't want to play the series anymore. They will make it as inconvenient for Notre Dame as they can because they know Notre Dame wants to keep game scheduled.

"They" is two people and an interim school president that doesn't care about sports.

Lincoln Riley is owed $$ on the James Franklin / Brian Kelly order of magnitude. He has whined since DAY ONE about travel, and he took the job at USC assuming that the PAC12 would stay the PAC12. He ran away from Oklahoma in large part because of the pending move to the SEC and then half a year after taking the job at USC they announced the Big Ten move. He does not want to play a hard schedule, he would play a schedule like Indiana if he could.

 

[allenm5333]

"They" is two people and an interim school president that doesn't care about sports.

Lincoln Riley is owed $$ on the James Franklin / Brian Kelly order of magnitude. He has whined since DAY ONE about travel, and he took the job at USC assuming that the PAC12 would stay the PAC12. He ran away from Oklahoma in large part because of the pending move to the SEC and then half a year after taking the job at USC they announced the Big Ten move. He does not want to play a hard schedule, he would play a schedule like Indiana if he could.

This is why i don’t rule out the Texas Tech rumors

 

[zelezo vlk]

The II pod touched on it briefly, basically a close neutral site game not counting as one of their home games would be good for some sort of home game requirement they’re mindful of. Not sure if it was a B1G Ten requirement or what.

I asked my USC buddy about this, and the response was weird. He's unsure of any requirement from the B1G Ten w/r/t home games, but he is absolutely positive that the rumored Mexico City/Netflix game was meant to shirk the B1G of their cut of home game revenue.

Tl;dr SC is poor and trying to circumvent their conference tv contract.

 

[IRISHDODGER]

"They" is two people and an interim school president that doesn't care about sports.

Lincoln Riley is owed $$ on the James Franklin / Brian Kelly order of magnitude. He has whined since DAY ONE about travel, and he took the job at USC assuming that the PAC12 would stay the PAC12. He ran away from Oklahoma in large part because of the pending move to the SEC and then half a year after taking the job at USC they announced the Big Ten move. He does not want to play a hard schedule, he would play a schedule like Indiana if he could.

Because he knows that as successful as the Air Raid offense can be, if you’re in a conference w/ formidable defenses, at best you’re Mike Leach 2.0.

 

[tussin]

"They" is two people and an interim school president that doesn't care about sports.

Lincoln Riley is owed $$ on the James Franklin / Brian Kelly order of magnitude. He has whined since DAY ONE about travel, and he took the job at USC assuming that the PAC12 would stay the PAC12. He ran away from Oklahoma in large part because of the pending move to the SEC and then half a year after taking the job at USC they announced the Big Ten move. He does not want to play a hard schedule, he would play a schedule like Indiana if he could.

There is a common misconception that these “super-conferences” equate to difficult schedules. There are many, many mediocre schedules across the B1G and SEC this year because there are years where programs miss literally all of the top teams. Ole Miss and OSU are prime examples of this.

 

[stlnd01]

There is a common misconception that these “super-conferences” equate to difficult schedules. There are many, many mediocre schedules across the B1G and SEC this year because there are years where programs miss literally all of the top teams. Ole Miss and OSU are prime examples of this.

Right.

The conferences are so big now that you don’t necessarily play the powers, but people hear “SEC” and think “Bama, Georgia, Texas. What a meat grinder.” The conference title game used to mean something, at least, but I’m not sure it does anymore.

Meantime people hear “independent” and know we play Navy every year but somehow miss that we’re playing 10 P4 opponents and even our G5s aren’t exactly Directional Tech.

 

[Dale]

“An additional road trip in the middle of conference play – without key players – may have stressed their roster beyond its limits or cost them a third defeat and eliminated them from playoff contention. Instead, they qualified despite two Big Ten losses.”

This line is legit crazy. We don’t wanna play in October because Ohio State hypothetically could have had injuries and hypothetically could have lost if they had? What are we doing….

 

[Bane]

This is why i don’t rule out the Texas Tech rumors

I'm not in a mind after the last two weeks to show any grace to TT but man I don't see why they would want that? This TT team is better than any LR USC team and maybe any LR OU team (leaving some wiggle room to be overlooking one). Maybe not better in talent composition, but their defense is nasty. I don't understand why they wouldn't want to build on that over taking in a guy who doesn't give a shit about defense.

 

[allenm5333]

I’m officially out. FUSC. When they want to be serious, we can play them again

 

[Bane]

I’m officially out. FUSC. When they want to be serious, we can play them again

The worst part is it seems their fans have fallen in line and are backing the AD's ridiculous statement. A few weeks ago before the game it seemed like most of them wanted the game to continue and were upset with the direction the school was going, now they seem to be drifting towards the company line.

 

[DomeFieldAdvantage]

So apparently that Riley leaving SC smoke might not have been about Texas Tech. Chris Vannini just said on Bunch Formation that there has been Riley to Baylor rumors for a couple weeks now.

 

[CanadalovesND]

So apparently that Riley leaving SC smoke might not have been about Texas Tech. Chris Vannini just said on Bunch Formation that there has been Riley to Baylor rumors for a couple weeks now.

Turns out Lincoln Riley has been a Branch Davidian this whole time...

 

[The Backer]

So apparently that Riley leaving SC smoke might not have been about Texas Tech. Chris Vannini just said on Bunch Formation that there has been Riley to Baylor rumors for a couple weeks now.

Didn’t ISD say “see you in Waco” after the USC game?

 

[irishff1014]

So apparently that Riley leaving SC smoke might not have been about Texas Tech. Chris Vannini just said on Bunch Formation that there has been Riley to Baylor rumors for a couple weeks now.

That would be stupid.

 

[calvegas04]

That would be stupid.

Stupid awesome/funny

 

[Dale]

 

[Dale]

Perpetual state for Lincoln Riley

 

[KPENN]

He’s such a soft bitch

 

[ColinKSU]

Remember that dork Fortuna's Tweet? You know the one.

 

[notredomer23]

Remember that dork Fortuna's Tweet? You know the one.

I believe it was the podcast after USC beat ND for the only 4th time in 16 years. "It's going to be a long time until Notre Dame will be able to compete with USC again".

 

[pumpdog20]

Unfortunately, he may be right... because they scared.