It couldn't be more obvious that USC just does not want to play Notre Dame anymore. Forget about the bogus talk of conference travel, the excuses just keep piling up and translating to, "we're done with the lopsided rivalry."
Just take a look at what Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley told reporters at Big Ten media days on Thursday, grasping at straws by reaching back to his Oklahoma days to provide a politician's deflection.
"My very first thought [when I was hired at OU] was, 'I get to coach OU-Texas.' When I decided to take the USC job, my first thought was, 'I get to coach USC-Notre Dame.' Do I want to play the game? Hell, yeah. I'm hopeful we can get to the point where it makes sense. The two schools are in radically different situations, one in a conference," he said (h/t On3's Brett McMurphy).
What does that even mean, Lincoln? Notre Dame has been famously independent for over 135 years. The programs' respective situations aren't any breaking news.
Lincoln Riley makes it more obvious USC is done with Notre Dame rivalry
It should be noted that Riley doesn't make any final decisions when scheduling a rival like Notre Dame, but his input certainly matters. And this isn't a good look.
Notre Dame has won six of the last seven meetings and seven out of the last ten against the Trojans. The Fighting Irish lead the all-time series 50-37-5 and have reached the national championship game twice (2013, 2025) since USC last appeared in one (2006).
The dodging, hemming and hawing from Riley and others at USC just make it more obvious they believe keeping Notre Dame off the schedule will improve the program's chances at making the College Football Playoff.
"If they ask my opinion, I wanna continuously play USC every year, you know, and it takes both parties to tangle and it's gotta fit both institutions and you know they're in a conference and we're not, when do we play and those different things," Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said in June of the endangered rivalry. "I think it's important that we continue to have this rivalry."
The two schools are scheduled to face off one last time (for now) this seasonm but an extension of the series is still possible. Though with how far in advance schedules are made in college football, there is a greater and greater chance of a hiatus before the Trojans and Irish meet on the gridiron after 2025.