Thanks to COVID-19, the USC Trojans are facing a 2020 football season without Notre Dame on the schedule for the first time since 1945, and without perhaps the most exciting non-conference game of the college football season, a date with Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide.
The PAC-12 is still planning to go forward with their regular conference slate, and while there are reasons to speculate if that will even happen, there’s little doubt the loss of Alabama and Notre Dame hurts the school’s appeal this upcoming season.
While it’s too early to tell, it’s also entirely possible USC’s basketball team could suffer a similar fate, if the PAC-12 decides to apply the same rule to their other big-time sport in order to buy time and hopefully limit travel.
For USC’s basketball squad, that will cost them two really big opponents: Gonzaga and Kansas.
The Trojans locked up a home-and-home with the Jayhawks back in March, and are scheduled to take them on at Allen Fieldhouse on December 19, with Kansas returning to play USC at home on December 21, 2021.
Gonzaga and USC are going to face off in the Phil Knight Invitational in Portland on November 17. It will be the first time USC has played Gonzaga in the Mark Few era. The Trojans boasting a 2-0 record against the Zags all-time, although both games took place in the early-1990’s.
Gonzaga and Kansas both represent excellent, early season opportunities for a young Trojans squad to demonstrate their talent and gain experience against top-tier opposition. Losing those will force the Trojans to grow on the fly in conference play, which could hurt their chances of getting an early-seed in the conference, and NCAA, tournament.
Beyond that, it robs the fans of a chance to see star freshman Evan Mobley against some of the elite big men in the country in primetime, something that the PAC-12 and the rest of the NCAA will surely want to avoid if possible.
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