11-29-2012, 08:08 AM
I'm torn on playing USC every year. Sure, it'll give us an extra loss when they are good. But when we are good, beating SC gets us tremendous respect. Just look at this year -- we went from #21 to #9 in the AP poll after beating SC. Let's face it, we are not a team that gets automatic respect (not yet, at least). So having SC on the schedule is not all bad.
UCLA, on the other hand, may be a whole different story if they become consistently good. Beating them don't have the cachet of beating SC but all the downsides of a tough conference opponent.
But I agree with OF's general premise on them. The better solution isn't to dumb down Pac-12 and Big-12 schedules, but rather to put pressure on other conferences to play fewer OOC cupcakes.
UCLA, on the other hand, may be a whole different story if they become consistently good. Beating them don't have the cachet of beating SC but all the downsides of a tough conference opponent.
But I agree with OF's general premise on them. The better solution isn't to dumb down Pac-12 and Big-12 schedules, but rather to put pressure on other conferences to play fewer OOC cupcakes.