Subscribe
Follow Us
The college football season is slowly approaching as we are less than three months away from the first game of the season. There are going to be a lot of exciting matchups to start the year, and one of the biggest games will be between USC football and LSU football at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. The Trojans and Tigers are going to be playing in primetime on the Sunday of week one, but according to a report from Saturday Down South, Lincoln Riley and USC tried to get out of the game.
USC football vs. LSU football was originally scheduled in 2021 and both schools are making $5 million off the game. However, Lincoln Riley and the Trojans tried to back out.
“The biggest game of the opening weekend of college football almost never happened,” The report said. “USC tried for nearly 2 years to find a way out of a contract to play LSU in Las Vegas because Trojans coach Lincoln Riley didn’t want the game, multiple sources told Saturday Down South.”
Riley pulled out a lot of stops when he was trying to get out of this game. At one point, Fox Sports even got involved. This USC-LSU will be airing on ABC, an ESPN network. The Big Ten has a huge media deal with Fox, and the network got involved because this will be the Trojans' first game as a Big Ten team, and it won't be aired on a network that the Big Ten has a deal with.
Fox tried to help USC, but it didn't work.
“They weren’t getting out of the game,” A source said.
Another route that Riley took was talking to his agent, who also represents LSU head coach Brian Kelly. Riley wanted his agent, Trace Armstrong, to help get Kelly on board with changing things up for that matchup, but that didn't work either. The Trojans were never going to find a way out of this huge contest.
This game is going to be crucial for both USC and LSU
USC football tried, but they couldn't get out of this huge early season matchup. The Trojans are going to take on LSU football during the first week of the season, and it is a massive game right out of the gates for both teams.
LSU is familiar with the pressure of a huge week one game as they started the season with Florida State last year. They lost that game, and that put a ton of pressure on them for the remainder of the season.
In the four-team playoff era, if you lost two games, you were essentially done. Things are different now as the playoff is expanding to 12 teams. Teams will be able to afford to lose two or maybe even three games and still get into the playoff. Still, a loss in week one is not what you want, and there will still be a lot of pressure for the rest of the season for teams that do lose in week one.
Both USC and LSU are expected to compete for a playoff spot, and one of these teams will be 0-1 after one week. It's going to be an exciting game, and college football fans are glad that the Trojans weren't able to get out of it. Everyone wants to see this matchup.
