Texas A&M vs. USC Home and Home Series is Canceled

USA TODAY SPORTS

If you had accommodations in College Station for USC’s 2015 and 2016 home and home series with Texas A&M, you probably should look into getting a refund, as you’re not going to be seeing Johnny Manziel line up against Su’a Cravens. According to Brent Zwerneman, who covers the Aggies for the San Antonio Express and the Houston Chronicle, the Trojans appear to have found themselves on the cutting room floor of A&M’s future out-of-conference schedules, along with the Oregon Ducks.

Zwerneman further explains on Twitter, that A&M needed to ‘scrub’ their non-conference schedule clean, due to the move from the Big 12 to the SEC. One explanation for that could be due to the fact that the SEC opens and closes conference play earlier than anyone else, playing a full slate of games over the course of Weeks 2 and 3, enabling some teams to conclude league play in early November.

The early finish to the SEC season allows for teams to play rivals from the ACC and schedule late-season games against the FCS, which double as playoff tune-ups for FCS schools, just one week before the playoffs begin. Last year, seven SEC teams played FCS opponents on November 17th, the same day USC played UCLA.

The result, was that the top two teams in the nation –Kansas State and Oregon– lost crucial conference games that were still on their slate that week, while SEC powerhouses Alabama, Florida and Georgia all beat FCS teams to slide back into the national title picture and take up the No. 2, 3 and 4 spots in the BCS Standings.

That change in the procedure of scheduling makes it exceedingly difficult for Texas A&M to add USC to their schedule, since they don’t have a September full of open dates as they did in the Big 12. The reality is that USC, or any quality power conference opponent, is not going to be keen on the idea of potentially traveling to Kyle Field in mid to late November for a non-rivalry, out-of-conference game, like they would in early September. With the pressures of outlasting other teams to get into national championship picture and the notion that losing early is better than late, it’s neither smart nor feasible.

With the deal between A&M and USC off, the Trojans now have the ability to shop their dates around, which could mean another trip to Hawaii or perhaps a kickoff classic type of game against a quality opponent at an NFL venue. We’ll have to wait and see, as only Notre Dame remains as OOC foes on the 2015 and 2016 schedules.