For all the grief Notre Dame received from different parts of the college football world for skipping a bowl game this year, it was just misplaced hatred and a waste of time. This hatred and time should have been reserved for Monday’s explosive news that saw the end of the Jeweled Shillelagh rivalry between Notre Dame and USC.
And it was most certainly USC’s fault.
For over a year now, we have been immersed in this conversation. It really started with Lincoln Riley’s early comments about trying to ease USC into the playoffs, and it’s been spiraling out of control ever since. There really seemed to be enough backlash from former Trojan players and wealthy USC alumni who were angry and amazed that there was even the slightest idea of ending one of the greatest rivalries in all of sports.
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But cowards are cowards and only run faster when discovered.
“Cowardice” is the only word that comes to mind (other than “gentle”) when I read this:
“However, USC officials determined that the game date was not ideal given the CFP selection committee’s past decisions to punish schools for losses, particularly those late in the season.”
USC openly admits to fearing Notre Dame’s loss before it even happened. As a blue blood and one of the greatest college football powers of all time, how did this program get to this point? Notre Dame owns the series with a 53-38-5 record against USC. The Irish have won three in a row, and 11 of the last 15. It’s a series that has always been back-to-back – but at no point from 2002 to 2008, when USC was 8-0 against the Irish, did anyone at Notre Dame even think about dropping the USC series.
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As if to end the series simply because USC is too soft to win a game against the Irish, we get this gem via tweets from LA Times writer Ryan Kartje:
“In light of Notre Dame’s CFP deal, which USC was unaware of, USC reversed its proposed compromise and insisted that the ND game be played in Week Zero in 2026. One source said they felt ND’s deal was “a material advantage” that could put USC at a disadvantage.
The USC calculation changed significantly on CFP selection day. USC was already reluctant to find a compromise. Concerns later emerged about what the committee was rewarding or punishing, one source said. Namely, how the committee could punish a late-season loss to ND.
If Notre Dame had its new deal with the CFP committee in place in 2025, the Irish would have gotten the upper hand on Miami, who beat them earlier in the season. This scenario concerned USC.
So… USC is angry about a deal its conference commissioner signed and delivered, and says he didn’t know about it. Either it’s the stupidest administration in sports or it’s completely full of shit – but it’s probably both. USC blew the series because the idea of Notre Dame being ranked 12th in the College Football Playoff rankings is a crazy and extreme turn of events.
SOFT.
USC was the main cause of the destruction of the PAC-12 and this crazy world of 18 team conferences, and all for extra money. Now they want to cry about the trips and the schedules and everything they not only helped create, but were sitting at the end of the table with a ring on their pinky and a cat and a stupid laugh.
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USC has become the sweetest program in the country. The fact that the Trojans are openly admitting their slackness is rather embarrassing. The series could return in 2030, and my first reaction would be to tell you not to bet on it, but chances are the people who make these decisions will be gone by then, and the USC faithful who aren’t cowards could probably put this game back on the menu.
We’ll see if that’s ultimately the case, but what I’m seeing right now is an unprecedented cowardice to compete, and that’s coming from a program that made competing against the best the highest priority under Pete Carroll. Disgusting.
