USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley took the stage at Big Ten Media Days here in Las Vegas, Nevada, to address the state of the USC program and take some initial questions from the media before heading to the smaller podium to take more questions.

As expected, he was asked about the historic USC-Notre Dame rivalry, the importance of when the game is played, and his expectations for the game moving forward.

This is not the first time he has been asked this question. In fact, last year’s Big Ten Media Days was the first time that it came up, and his response gave fans an uneasiness that the game could be coming to an unceremonious end.

USC Trojans Lincoln Riley Asked About USC-Notre Dame Rivalry

He has been asked the same question numerous times since then and over the past offseason, but this was far and away his most emphatic answer.

“When I decided, the night at my house, to take the USC job, my first thought was ‘I get to coach USC-Notre Dame. My very first thought. Before coach, player, anything like that, but as a fan… Do I want to play the game? Hell yeah, I want to play the game. Absolutely, it’s one of the reasons I came here.”

Honestly, this is not much of a change of tune from other times Riley has been asked about the rivalry. He has always been pretty poignant about the fact that he respects the game and absolutely wants it to continue on.

He continues his response:

“But also, my allegiance and my loyalty is not to Notre Dame, and it’s not to anybody else. I’m the head football coach at USC, and I’m gonna back USC, and I’m going to do everything possible and in my power to make USC as good as it can, and I’m not gonna let anything stand in between them. So I’m very hopeful we can get to the point where it makes sense. It’s one of those situations right now where the two schools are in radically different situations. I think we can all agree with that, with one having a conference affiliation and one not.”

This has always been the major talking point, not just for Lincoln Riley and USC, but for all of college football.

The USC Trojans have an obligation to play nine Big Ten football games every year, with three non-conference games. Being that Notre Dame is still independent, not only do they get to somewhat handpick their schedule every year, but they also have a much simpler path to the College Football Playoff, as we have seen play out in real time many times since the CFP was adopted.

He finishes his statement:

“I think that there are a million reasons why we should very seriously, as a college football community, we should adopt the automatic qualifying in terms of the college football playoff, but this might be the most important; we give every reason for college football to preserve non-conference games that mean a lot to the history of the game, the fanbases, and the former players, and everybody that’s been associated with them. So, I’m very hopeful that we can get there, and I’m hopeful that we play this game forever.”

Lincoln Riley wants to play this game forever. The USC Trojans want to play this game forever.

That being said, it will be fascinating to see how the NCAA reacts, the other conferences react in terms of automatic qualifiers, and how Notre Dame reacts to their state of independence being called out.

Fight On vs the Fighting Irish forever.

Watch the full press conference here:

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