The traditions and rivalries that used to be the backbone and beauty of college football have all but dissipated.
Unfortunately, yet another rivalry rooted in longtime tradition is coming to an end for now as college football continues to take a turn for the worse. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and USC Trojans have a rivalry dating back a century, and there’s not many reasons outside of greed and a broken playoff system to explain their decisions. Because for now, the series between the two programs is off, and the Fighting Irish have already announced their replacement – a home-and-home with the BYU Cougars.
As Adam Rittenberg of ESPN reports, one primary problem was the timing of the game, as the Trojans wanted it scheduled earlier in the year, around the time that Power 4 programs like to play premier non-conference games. However, there just really aren’t any good enough reasons to destroy a century old tradition whose existence shows the better side of the sports, and whose elimination really shows the ugly, darker side of the landscape that things are headed towards.
Here is the full story from Irish Breakdown Roundtable writer Bryan Driskell on the disappointing end to the rivalry and what it says about the sport.
These actions can all be tied back to all of the conference realignment in college football that has bloated conferences beyond repair and devastated a ton of tradition. Once USC left the Pac-12, effectively destroying it, for the Big Ten, it felt like nothing was off the table. And it was one that head coach Lincoln Riley has bemoaned for years while simultaneously promoting the rivalry, making this feel a bit inevitable.
To Notre Dame’s credit, they scheduled a replacement that has been a recent playoff contender, while the Trojans have yet to replace the rivalry that made their schedule more difficult. The Fighting Irish led the series 51-37-5. Instead, they’ll now turn their sights to the other team who was left out of the 12-team field in the CFP.