Why Brian Kelly says 'we may not see' games like LSU football-USC happen in the future

BATON ROUGE — With the recent dramatic changes to the landscape of college football, and what could still be on the horizon, LSU football coach Brian Kelly says that the life of the marquee neutral site nonconference games could find itself on life support.

No. 12 LSU locks up with No. 23 USC at the Vegas Kickoff Classic in a captivating season-opener that'll have the entire eyes of the sport on its as it's the only game Sunday night (6:30 p.m. CT, ABC).

The game will be played at a neutral sit venue, Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

Since the game was agreed upon back in July 2021, major shifts have befallen upon college football, more specifically the conferences LSU and USC compete in. The Southeastern Conference has since added two tradition-rich and perennial national championship contenders from the Big 12 in Texas and Oklahoma, giving the SEC 16 schools.

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Arguably a bigger change, USC is no longer in the Pac-12, which is now defunct, joined the Big Ten this past offseason.

"Conference realignment hadn't occurred when this agreement happened," LSU football coach Brian Kelly said during his first game week press conference of the 2024 season Monday. "We were so far down the line of getting this done in terms of Las Vegas being involved, the financial considerations – this isn't about finances, we're not playing this game just because of money — we're playing because you got two teams who shared a national championship. You got two elite programs coming together.

"That's the reason why wanted the matchup"

The Trojans were already competing in a conference that required a nine-game league schedule and there's been speculation that SEC could adopt a nine-game model for its now 16-team league in the near future.

These changes to the landscape of college football and its Power Four conferences, Kelly said, could possibly cut back on the frequency fans of the sport see marquee nonconference neutral site games.

"It was before the conference has changed, them going into the Big Ten. Certainly we felt like this was a great matchup. Moving forward, these may not be the kind of things you see relative to openers. I think we were too far down the line to make any changes to this opener," Kelly said. "I think it's still an appealing opener even with the changes that have occurred.

"Moving forward we may not see something like this."

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Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com .

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Why Brian Kelly says 'we may not see' games like LSU football-USC happen in the future