Why USC football and Ole Miss canceled their home-and-home series

USC and Ole Miss canceled their home-and-home series on Tuesday. The pact, formed in May 2020, called for the teams to play in Los Angeles in 2025 and Oxford in 2026. To date, the schools have never met on the football field.

Cue the “Lincoln Riley is afraid of the SEC” snark from fans.

Recent conference realignment is the ultimate cause of USC and Ole Miss canceling their home-and-home series. This includes Big Ten expansion to gain the Trojans, UCLA, Washington, and Oregon, and SEC expansion to gain Texas and Oklahoma. Now, teams within both conferences are reexamining their pacts with future non-conference opponents.

Yesterday, we discussed why USC tried to back out of its September Week 1 game against LSU. To recap the situation, the Big Ten remains unhappy that its newest flagship program will appear on ESPN to kick off the new college football season.

The NCAA’s largest conferences are likely feeling pressured to satisfy their hefty media partners. The Trojans vs. Rebels series is the latest casualty of this. Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter believes conference scheduling is another reason for cancellation.

Playing nine conference games is detrimental to significant non-conference scheduling.

USC will play a nine-game Big Ten schedule this season and beyond. The Trojans played nine conference games as Pac-12 members, but the Big Ten competition is stiffer. Indeed, USC will play Michigan (in Ann Arbor), Wisconsin, and Penn State in four weeks.

Another consideration is that most of the Trojans’ Big Ten schedule will be played in seven consecutive weeks. USC has a bye scheduled on November 9 before finishing its conference schedule against Nebraska and UCLA. This is a departure from the Pac-12 schedule, which allowed non-conference opponents sprinkled in.

The SEC remains locked into an eight-game conference schedule, but Carter believes that will shift to nine games in 2025.

USC will begin the 2024 regular season against LSU in the Vegas Kickoff Classic and end with its annual matchup with Notre Dame. Their schedule is one of the most challenging in college football.

The Big Ten appears committed to retaining USC’s storied rivalry with Notre Dame. Thus, the Trojans will likely fill their second non-conference opponent slot annually with a Group 5 opponent. Georgia Southern (2025) and Fresno State (2026) are scheduled to play in Los Angeles in the coming seasons.