Games like USC-Michigan will help college football fans adjust to the decline of the Pac-12.
The Trojans (ranked 11th) and Wolverines (ranked 18th) played a regular season game for the first time in 66 years, and it instantly became a Big Ten classic.
Without a functioning passing game, Michigan stormed to a 27-24 win over its new conference rival from the West Coast in the Big House.
“I think it was just a classic back-and-forth battle,” USC coach Lincoln Riley told reporters after his team played hard but couldn’t quite beat the defending national champions.
When conference officials and television executives came up with the idea of a Big Ten West Wing, this is exactly what they had in mind.
“I can’t believe we have to play this game when we could be watching SC versus Cal in front of 40,000 empty seats,” said Fox Sports CEO Michael Mulvihill posted on X.
Fox shares the Big Ten rights with CBS and NBC.
USC-Michigan aired on CBS and no doubt drew a huge audience that will delight the network’s suits given their $350 million annual investment.
But here’s how they’re getting one: With the thrilling duel between USC and Michigan on a sunny Saturday in front of 110,000 fans. With the duel between No. 6 Tennessee and No. 15 Oklahoma in the Sooners’ first Southeastern Conference game, which was played later that Saturday night.
It’s cold, but true. The games always seem to keep their promises.
More than a year after the Pac-12 disintegrated and its traditional members scattered to other major conferences, this realignment is leading to strange developments.
On Friday night, Stanford made a cross-country trip to Syracuse to play its first game as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
One may safely ask: What is the meaning of all this?
Then the Cardinal and Orange play a thrilling game that Stanford wins on a walk-off field goal. The absurdity of it all fades away and fans forget about the greedy and destructive off-field decisions that the people who run college football so often make.
Across the country
No. 7 Missouri was brought to the brink of defeat by Vanderbilt and escaped with a double-overtime victory that ended with the Commodores missing a short field goal that would have tied the game and kept the game alive. … Florida picked up a win at Mississippi State that may buy coach Billy Napier a few more weeks. The school has no president, and firing a coach in September and opening a transfer window for players doesn’t do much good. The Gators have a week off before their next game against UCF at the Swamp on Oct. 5. And as for the Bulldogs (1-3), they look like they’re starting from scratch in their first year under coach Jeff Lebby. … Since getting past Georgia in Week 1, No. 21 Clemson has been unstoppable. The Tigers have rebounded from that humiliating loss by outscoring Appalachian State and NC State by a combined 101-20 in the first half. Even allowing for the level of difficulty, Clemson’s offense and QB Cade Klubnik are unrecognizable from last season. Before kicking a field goal on the final play of the first half against NC State, the Tigers had scored touchdowns on 14 of 15 first-half possessions in the past two games. … Both James Madison’s old coach and JMU with a new coach remain undefeated. Former Dukes coach Curt Cignetti has Indiana 4-0 for the first time since 2020 after another blowout victory, this time against Charlotte. The Hoosiers have outscored their opponents 150-23 so far. Meanwhile, JMU moved to 3-0 under former Holy Cross coach Bob Chesney by scoring 53 first-half points against North Carolina, the most the Tar Heels have ever allowed in a half.
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Follow Ralph D. Russo on https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP
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