Lincoln Riley has interesting thoughts about USC-Notre Dame

USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley had plenty to say at his first Big Ten Media Days.

Riley is on the hot seat and knows he needs to get his traditional powerhouse back on track if he wants to keep his job.

One of the things that came up during his media day appearance was the Trojans’ schedule and how it impacts their ability to play for a national championship. Riley admitted he would be open to dropping longtime rival Notre Dame off the schedule if it helps his team improve its chances of winning a title.

“I would love to [keep playing Notre Dame],” he said. “I know it means a lot to a lot of people. The purist in you, no doubt. Now if you get in 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 got to look at it.

“And listen, we’re not the first example of that. Look all the way across the country. There have been a lot of other teams sacrifice rivalry games,” he added.

Riley also noted that USC is now in a tougher conference, which means  they may not need the Fighting Irish on the schedule anymore.

“Bama was ahead of the curve for years, I thought, on how they scheduled in the non-conference,” Riley told reporters Wednesday. “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 little bit of a bye week there late in the season. They didn’t schedule for their fans – they scheduled to win championships.”

Under Nick Saban Alabama would often kick off their season in either Dallas or Atlanta in a marquee match-up against teams like USC or the Florida State Seminoles, often winning those matchups. It helped them down the road when it came to getting into the College Football Playoff.

A lot of experts felt like the reason why the Seminoles were overlooked last year in favor of Alabama was their schedule. They played against a weak ACC and their out-of-conference schedule included the likes of North Alabama and a disappointing Florida team.

USC faced the same issues at times in the Pac-12. They won’t have that issue now playing in the Big Ten where the schedule will be peppered with schools like Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, and Wisconsin, along with Washington, Oregon, and UCLA.

Having to play Michigan, Ohio State, and Notre Dame in the same year may help their strength of schedule but hurt their chances of competing for a national championship down the road.

{Brad Crawford}