Lincoln Riley comments put USC-Notre Dame football rivalry in doubt

Some cryptic remarks from Lincoln Riley at Big Ten Media Days appear to suggest the USC vs. Notre Dame football rivalry could be in peril at some point.

USC vs. Notre Dame remains one of college football's great historic rivalries, but Lincoln Riley's recent comments suggest the matchup might not be set in stone. / Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

College football remains in the midst of a major realignment not only after conference expansion but with the new 12-team playoff, and now a prominent coach is suggesting that one of the sport's most historic rivalries could be expendable in this new environment.

Realignment has forced some rivalry games to the sideline while renewing others, but as USC heads into the Big Ten, head coach Lincoln Riley appeared to hint that his school's matchup against Notre Dame could theoretically end up being a casualty, should it come to that.

"There [have] been a lot of teams that sacrifice rivalry games," Riley told reporters.

"I'm not saying that's what's going to happen, but as we get into this playoff structure, and if it changes or not, we get into this new conference, we're going to learn some about this as we go and what the right and best track is to winning a national championship, that's going to evolve."

Known as the greatest intersectional rivalry in college football, USC and Notre Dame have met almost every year since 1926, with World War II and the Covid pandemic being the only exceptions.

Still, Riley does want to keep the game on the schedule.

"I would love to," 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 got to make a decision on what's best for 'SC to help us win a national championship versus keeping that, shoot, then you got to look at it."

The suggestion that Riley's comments imply is that he would prefer USC set a more favorable non-conference slate to ease things up on the team amid its expectedly difficult Big Ten schedule.

And if that means a tough decision to remove a traditionally tough non-conference game in an effort to put USC in a better position to win a national title, it appears Riley is willing to consider it.

If so, it would be another decisive blow against college football tradition as the sport realigns itself to accommodate the new market.

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