[Farm93]

I agree that we wanted to maintain the rivalries with UCLA and SC, but we didn't wield the power to make it happen. Heritage Hall had the power, and if they didn't get what they wanted, they would have walked. They just happened to want the same thing we wanted.

As far as preserving the ND game date, we already had a contract  to play the last game of the year on even years. The conference preserved that out of legal necessity, not because of our desire.

I had to chuckle that you had to battle this reality bit by yourself.  It was in the conference's best interest to imply that Cal & Stanford were key in the battle to keep the Cali collection, but it was all about what SC wanted.  SC won't be playing UCLA on October 20th any time soon, and they won't need to flex any muscle to keep their rivalry game at the end of the season.

Put it a different way, I bet three of us and DeCastro can beat any other four on this board in a tug of war battle.  And "we" will flex our muscle and show that "we" are powerful.  But everyone else in the world would know DeCastro won and the other three were just hanging on to the rope.  Sounds ridiculous, but that is essentially what USC represented in our fight to keep the annual Cali scheduling.

The Big Game battle actually had two schools battling against 9 others AND SC.  Much like my DeCastro analogy, the battle was over before it began once SC was on the other side.

[Farm93]

I agree that we wanted to maintain the rivalries with UCLA and SC, but we didn't wield the power to make it happen. Heritage Hall had the power, and if they didn't get what they wanted, they would have walked. They just happened to want the same thing we wanted.

As far as preserving the ND game date, we already had a contract  to play the last game of the year on even years. The conference preserved that out of legal necessity, not because of our desire.

I had to chuckle that you had to battle this reality bit by yourself.  It was in the conference's best interest to imply that Cal & Stanford were key in the battle to keep the Cali collection, but it was all about what SC wanted.  SC won't be playing UCLA on October 20th any time soon, and they won't need to flex any muscle to keep their rivalry game at the end of the season.

Put it a different way, I bet three of us and DeCastro can beat any other four on this board in a tug of war battle.  And "we" will flex our muscle and show that "we" are powerful.  But everyone else in the world would know DeCastro won and the other three were just hanging on to the rope.  Sounds ridiculous, but that is essentially what USC represented in our fight to keep the annual Cali scheduling.

The Big Game battle actually had two schools battling against 9 others AND SC.  Much like my DeCastro analogy, the battle was over before it began once SC was on the other side.