One of the first criticisms of USC football and the other West Coast teams joining the Big Ten Conference relates to the issue of travel. There is no denying the trip from Los Angeles to Piscataway to play Rutgers (not this year, but in the future) is going to be different from any conference road game USC has ever encountered. USC does visit Maryland later this season. That game could be a body-clock problem for the Trojans.
However Lincoln Riley made a great point when he said this last week: “We’ve gotten kind of some test runs on this, you know, obviously coming out here to play Notre Dame,” Riley explained. “It’s not a whole lot different in terms of the travel. There’s some things in terms of recovery. For us, we’re fortunate on the back end because we’re going to gain all the hours coming back. The recovery for the opposing teams coming our way and then going east, postgame and preparation for the next game will probably be a little more challenging for them than it is for us. Honestly, NFL teams have been doing it forever and do you see anybody in the NFL making a big deal about, ‘Oh, my God! The Rams have got to go play the Giants.’ I think at some point after this first year it’s not going to be a topic. We’ve got to be aware of it, we’ve got to do it well but I think if we do it will be a minimal impact.”
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