On Monday, Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reported that USC and Notre Dame failed to reach an agreement to extend their storied rivalry. After facing off nearly every year for practically a century, the Trojans and Fighting Irish will not meet in 2026, or reportedly for at least the next four seasons.
According to reports, the College Football Playoff played a major role in the rivalry being put on hold. USC was apparently hesitant to play a challenging nonconference games late in the season, as the Trojans feared that could hurt their playoff hopes.
Advertisement
If true, that sums up pretty much everything that is wrong with college football today.
The “only the playoff matters” mindset
Perhaps the worst thing to happen to college football over the past decade is the spread of the mindset that the College Football Playoff is all that matters. This mindset has already effectively killed bowl games, which used to be a massive part of the sport, but now largely feel like consolation scrimmages with so many players opting out/transferring. Now, it is coming for one of college football’s greatest rivalries.
What makes college football great
College football was built on rivalries and traditions. What makes this sport so amazing—and unlike any other—are fall Saturdays on college campuses. There are few things more exciting in sports than watching two programs that cannot stand each other go to war for three hours in front of 100,000 screaming fans. The sport has seen its postseason structure change numerous times, but that has always remained the case.
Advertisement
What the playoff was supposed to do
The College Football Playoff was supposed to supplement the regular season. It was intended to give us more exciting games at the end of the year, and avoid the issues of the BCS era when teams capable of winning the title were left out (i.e. USC in 2003 and 2008).
What it has actually done
Unfortunately, however, this has not been the reality. Instead of supplementing the regular season, it feels as though the playoff has detracted from it—especially in the 12-team era.
How many times over the past two years has what should have been a massive game felt diminished because the loser was in the playoff regardless? Perhaps never was this more evident than last year, when Ohio State lost to its biggest rival at home and still went on to win the national championship.
Advertisement
The latest (and biggest casualty)
Now, we are seeing one of college football’s greatest rivalries due to the nature of the sport’s current structure. USC and Notre Dame are so determined to improve their playoff positioning that they are willing to end their century-old rivalry in order to do so.
We are valuing the wrong things
At the end of the day, I get that it is the job of USC’s athletic department to do what is best for USC, not for the sport of college football. The same goes for Notre Dame. But the fact that we are throwing out a century-old rivalry because of a man-made entity that has only existed in its current iteration for less than two years highlights exactly what is wrong with the sport today.
Advertisement
The NFL-ification of the sport
As I wrote earlier, college football’s was built on rivalries and traditions, rather than the postseason. A huge part of what makes it great is that it is extremely different from the NFL (or college basketball, or any other sport, for that matter).
What is happening with USC and Notre Dame just further confirms what we already knew—college football is throwing out a huge part of what makes it great in order to be more like the NFL. To me, at least, that is a massive shame.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: College Football Playoff is to blame for USC-Notre Dame ending
