There’s no denying college football is at a crossroads right now. Fox Sports college football analyst Joel Klatt knows it, and it is for that reason he feels a change to the scheduling process is in order. If he gets his way though, one of the sport’s best rivalries could vanish.
In an appearance on “The Herd with Colin Cowherd”, Klatt indicated that college football teams no longer should have control over which teams they schedule. More conference games, according to Klatt, would provide a better assessment of College Football Playoff contenders.
While it’s not an entirely bad idea as it certainly would stop such cringe-worthy trends as Alabama scheduling cupcake programs the week before the Iron Bowl, Klatt decided to add to a discussion Cowherd had started about the cherished rivalry between Notre Dame and USC:
“It’s not USC’s job to move off of Notre Dame as much as it is college football’s job and some overarching governing body scheduling, in particular for parity, so that the best teams have to play the most difficult schedules and the worse teams have some break, in particular in their nonconference slate.”
With all due respect to Klatt, who shouldn’t even entertain a sentiment from Cowherd, there is no indication that either program is ready for this to happen. Perhaps there will come a time where they won’t have a choice, but until that time, every effort must be made to protect the annual clash between the Irish and Trojans.
Klatt and Cowherd either have no understanding or don’t care about what this annual battle means. Both teams want to beat each other, but they also have immense respect for each other. For the Irish, only Navy can compete in that area the way only UCLA can compete for the Trojans.
Anyone who doesn’t see the value of this rivalry shouldn’t have a voice in college football. It’s too big for anyone to just make it go away if it doesn’t have to go away. Nope. They’ll keep it going forever if they can.
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