USC is smart to hold on Notre Dame agreement amid College Football Playoff uncertainty

It seems to be something of a popular thing to do during college football's slow season. USC is being accused of any number of things, including causing the downfall of CFB and being 'scared' to face tough opponents.

Forget the unbalanced scheduling that Notre Dame and the SEC schools have created for themselves to annually give them an inherent advantage. Once the Trojans start also looking out for their own self-interest, then suddenly it becomes a problem.

Set aside that aspect for now; the issue presently isn't in coach Riley ducking a Fighting Irish fan base that is feeling overly confident after making it to the last playoff championship. Instead, it is in the lack of consistent criteria from the committee.

Without knowing what the decision makers are looking for on an annual basis, it makes it difficult to know what programs should be striving for.

Take this past year, for example. SMU ended up making it because of how they performed in the ACC Championship, only narrowly losing to Clemson by a 50-plus-yard field goal. Then, Alabama was excluded for their resume not being strong despite a non-conference win over Wisconsin. Their losses against Vanderbilt and Oklahoma were just seen as too much to overlook.

For this year and moving forward, it's still unknown if programs need to focus on their strength of schedule or just compiling wins.

By all means, if the committee comes out tomorrow and decrees that SoS is the most important factor, even if it still won't be everything, then USC-ND should be scheduled for the next century. Even in down years, the psychological bias of the two brands would always be enough to be viewed favorably by those behind closed doors.

So long as there is this uncertainty with the format, as spelled out by Jon Wilner in his column for The Mercury News, it does not benefit the Trojans whatsoever to schedule anything long-term with Notre Dame. (It would still beg the question why the Fighting Irish would turn down the 2026 game in the meantime, though.)

It time for USC to be selfish; everyone else is

USC has to look at the best path of potentially making the CFP. Making and winning the Big Ten Championship will always be an avenue, regardless of automatic bids or if the playoffs are further expanded. To add ND between a potential future matchup against Ohio State and a cross-country road trip to Madison just does not make sense. This is especially true when others elect to schedule FCS opponents in those same slots in their schedule.

For anyone still upset at USC, blame schools like Alabama, who have Eastern Illinois scheduled in November this year.