By Kyle Golik
Nothing surprises me any more with college football. The longer I invest myself in the game, nothing seems crazy.
Death of the Pac-12 conference shook me, but due to how every university was out for itself, its demise was symbolic of how the pursuit of money is a priority. Recent legislation now allows schools to pay athletes directly, on top of the marketing opportunities their names, image, and likeness can generate individually.
With television networks investing so much into college football, you would be naive to think they wouldn’t wield their influence on the sport. An example of this is with the Penn State annual White Out game.
Currently, FOX Big Noon isn’t committing for their November 2 game. They are waiting to see if Penn State is ranked high enough to have their annual contest with Ohio State be their feature game. The other option? Oregon visits Michigan.
With FOX not committing, it leaves Penn State – who prefers to have its White Out under the lights – having to potentially shift the tradition to the Illinois game.
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While a White Out game will be played, FOX’s Colin Cowherd suggests one of college football’s most historic rivalries should come to an end.
“Why do they have to keep playing Notre Dame?” Cowherd began to ask why Southern California continues to play Notre Dame. “College football punted on history last year. They disbanded the only Power 5 conference west of the Rockies. Punted it into the ether. Every man for himself. So spare me on the history.”
Cowherd continued: “When you start that salty discharge comes from your eyes, down your cheeks talking about USC-Notre Dame, this is a sport … that punted on an entire region of the country,” Cowherd said. “Longtime regional rivals into the ether, why is USC playing Notre Dame? All good things come to an end.”
Considering the number of rivalries that have gone dormant during the last two decades, the suggestion of ending a rivalry – even one with the magnitude of Southern California and Notre Dame – shouldn’t be taken lightly considering how television networks have manipulated college football.
There are many key ingredients that made college football explode. Many of them have began to erode through the various rounds of realignment, whether it has been conference affiliations, regionality, and even, in some ways, the guise of amateurism and student athletes.
The one ingredient that is now being threatened, even in a verbal suggestion like Cowherd’s, are rivalries.
The whole story behind Southern California and Notre Dame dates back to when Howard Jones was coaching at Iowa and Knute Rockne coached for the Irish. In their first encounter in 1921, the Hawkeyes built a 10-0 lead. The Irish began to chip away on a John Mohardt pass to Roger Kiley to cut it to 10-7. The Hawkeye defense stifled Irish offensive pursuits and held on for the 10-7 victory. It was the exchange between Jones and Rockne that birthed the Southern California and Notre Dame rivalry.
“You owe me,” said Rockne to Jones after the Hawkeyes spoiled Notre Dame’s pursuit for a third consecutive undefeated season.
The retribution came in 1926 when the Irish edged the Trojans 13-12 and the sport’s greatest intersectional rivalry was born. The number of national championships that were won or denied were numerous, the coaching rivalries like Jones vs. Rockne and Ara Parseghian vs. John McKay defined the rivalry, and the numerous Heisman Trophy winners – as well as Hall of Fame players – that made an impact.
While there is no immediate threat to this rivalry, and both schools will tell you it is not in their best interest to discontinue the rivalry, it is the television networks that assess the ratings in order to create matchups that give them the numbers that are profitable.
Southern California and Notre Dame should be safe from the network executives that have a stranglehold on college football, but as an audience we need to worry about other rivalries that don’t have the national cache the Irish and Trojans possess.
One such rivalry ending in 2025 is the “Iron Skillet” that involves SMU and TCU. After the rivalry was announced it will be paused, SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee commented, “The game has been played over 100 years. I don’t know why we wouldn’t play. We are always willing to play them. I think it’s good for Texas football, I think it’s good for the Dallas Metroplex to have Dallas’ team and Fort Worth’s team playing.”
The unique rivalries are the flair that sets college football apart from the rest of the sporting world. I could not fathom a conference with the history and caliber of the Pac-12 would essentially cease to exist after a century of excellence. We shouldn’t scoff at the notion from a talking head like Cowherd as being mindless because of all the seismic shifts we have seen in the sport, you know an executive has thoughts in their minds.
A “perfect day” for a Trojan fan is a win and losses by UCLA and Notre Dame. I cannot imagine a Trojan having a better recipe.. Hopefully that consideration can be realized by talking heads and television executives.
