Lincoln Riley wants to follow the Nick Saban scheduling model

Apr 23, 2022; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Southern California Trojans coach Lincoln Riley during the spring game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Lincoln Riley believes life for USC is about to get more difficult now that the team has joined the Big Ten. The change has him thinking about adapting Nick Saban’s schedule model.

Riley spoke with reporters on Wednesday at Big Ten Media Days at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. The USC head coach talked about his desire to follow what Saban did at Alabama by scheduling some easier non-conference opponents.

“‘Bama was ahead of the curve for years, I thought, on how they scheduled in the non-conference,” Riley said, via On3 . “They would occasionally hit the marquee non-conference game, they’d play two other not-very-good teams, they’d play one late so they got essentially a little bit of a bye week there late in the season. They didn’t schedule for their fans – they scheduled to win championships.

“My hope is we can do the best thing, schedule to win championships that includes a rivalry game for all that comes with that and all that it means. But if you get in the positions, you’ve got to make a decision on what the priority is.”

Saban desired to play a schedule featuring 10 SEC games and two Power 5 non-conference opponents. But there were two problems: one is that other schools didn’t want to play Alabama, knowing it was a likely loss. Two, the College Football Playoff rewarded teams with the fewest losses, which incentivized playing an easier non-conference schedule.

USC has a stout non-conference schedule in 2024 featuring games against LSU and Notre Dame. They also have conference road games at Michigan and Washington. But Riley’s comments could foreshadow some bad news about USC’s rivalry with Notre Dame .

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