Notre Dame, Texas, Oklahoma, Miami & USC at The Eye of Possible NCAA Storm

    If you thought this last off season was dark and stormy in regards to conference realignment, let me present you with one possible in depth forecast of tomorrow's college football weather. A year ago this would have sounded impossible and/or crazy, but in today's turbulent climate, it is much more plausible. With it could carry devastating "Category 5" type damage to many places and usher in a new era of college football and in truth all of college sports.  The collateral damage would extend to programs, athletic departments and communities across the entire NCAA. Some of these entities are currently sitting totally unaware in blissful ignorance of the approaching storm. It’s past the time when warning sirens should start blaring loudly and precautionary evacuation plans were started.

     Oklahoma, Texas, USC and Miami could potentially join Notre Dame as Independents and sign long term contracts (15-20 years) with NBC and each other to play yearly, thus forming a five team "Independent Alliance".  This would likely take Texas A&M and Florida State to the SEC. Now, before you scoff, consider how ready, willing and able those five teams would be to embrace such an alliance. Also consider the risk vs. reward for loading up on such a yearly schedule, which might be way different than many people think. It could be argued under this system that it would be easier to reach the National Championship Game and also much easier, and in fact, borderline guarantee a BCS game for multiple if not most teams of the “Alliance” every year.

     Oklahoma and Texas are in a recently mutilated conference at the moment. Their sudden and abrupt commitment to the dying Big XII (-2), would appear to anyone with any sense, as a time buying and stall tactic. When they can decide what is in their best long term interests, things will dissolve. Until then nothing will happen. It doesn't take a Rhodes Scholar to understand they would not want to go from carrying dead weight in their current league to carrying a bigger load of dead weight from the Pac 10 (+2 or +4 or +6 or + whatever). This is ultimately why the Pac 10+6 failed to materialize after Nebraska bolted to the Big 10 and why it will never, ever happen.  The only true power worth being associated with when talking rights to television contracts within the entire PAC 10 Conference from both Texas and Oklahoma's viewpoint is USC. Everyone else is basically another mouth to feed. Three elite teams supporting 16 does not sound very appealing to either of these two schools, especially considering they just had problems with three elite teams (OU, Tex, Neb) supporting 12.  The current thinking from both Norman and Austin seems to follow the idea that you only get one bite at this apple, so you don't do anything rash.  You think very hard and are very diligent before you take your bite. There is no reason to hurry this process.  One cannot help but conclude that they are sitting around trying to figure out how to separate themselves from non-contributing programs within the conference. Really the only true contributing one left besides these two superpowers is Texas A&M. The Aggies while having great traditions and a fine program just are not enough of a national draw though.  They bring slightly less to the table during TV contract negotiations for their partners because of this.  No one really cares to see Texas A&M vs. Cream Puff State.  Everyone watches Texas and Oklahoma, even in down years, play Popcorn State in great numbers though.  Texas A&M has been all but begging since realignment talk started to join the SEC, it would not take much for them to SECede. Not many options are available for Texas and Oklahoma to distance themselves from the lower tiered conference programs though. Forcing other schools share of the money down further past what they already have done or voting a few teams out of the league would be about the only other options. Those would probably both be next to impossible.  Independence done correctly is probably the best available route to allow both to cut ties to the financial anchors that they are currently burdened with and guarantee a prosperous future.

     New USC A.D. Pat Hayden, who just happens to be a Rhodes Scholar by the way, has already mentioned Independence and he is only months on the job. As a result of recent events, USC is now supporting 11 other athletic departments instead of just 9. How long do you think that’s going to keep going on?  Additionally, with recent NCAA sanctions slapped upon them, USC is looking for any positive spin it can get its hands on to help people forget what they are enduring.  The excitement a move like this would generate would give them a new more hopeful look to the future, rather than the short term abyss in which they are currently entrenched.  The fact that it would help to jump start the program quicker in the wake of the NCAA's wrath cannot be underscored enough even though it wouldn't be the single determining factor.

     Miami would jump at any chance that meant they could now afford their very own first class stadium near or on campus. The entire scope of the current facilities and balance sheet across the entire athleic department is frankly embarrassing for a program of their stature.  That is why Miami would probably make this move much quicker than Florida State, for those who are wondering why you can't easily flip-flop them.  Florida State seems to be on much sounder ground economically speaking. In admission though, this entire scenario could be tailored to swap either. Miami has just been run ineptly at an administrative level for years even when the football team was “King of College Football”. It's hard to place precise blame. Maybe it’s the President, maybe it’s the Regents, maybe it’s the AD and maybe it’s all of them.  Miami would likely sell their soul at a chance for the kind of money and exposure a deal like this would bring. The excitement and energy from being in such an Independent Alliance might even be used to fill the stadium more consistently on game day.

     Notre Dame, while already an Independent, has a new potential long term problem that will make them open to an alliance. They will have a tougher and tougher time scheduling decent opponents out of the new expanded Big Ten.  Big Ten teams represent most of the historically relevant rivalries the Irish play outside of USC. With expansion many teams will be reluctant to play Nebraska, Michigan, Ohio St, Wisconsin, Penn State then a potential Conference Championship Game and then also schedule a game with Notre Dame. Doing so would put the lower tiered programs in jeopardy of not making bowl appearances.The upper tiered programs will be at risk of losing a game against Notre Dame and it negatively affecting their BCS rankings and costing them a chance for a National Title. The risk vs. reward over time for playing Notre Dame will continue to diminish for all Big Ten (+2) programs. Notre Dame might not like this but they understand it with crystal clarity. It puts Notre Dame in a position to have to proactively seek an Independent Alliance for long term stability OR finally give in and join the Big 10 (+2) OR they could fade further into obscurity and play Service Academies and mid majors endlessly. I know where the smart money will be betting.

     Ultimately most of these schools are all tired of supporting weak conference members only to have that money used against them to compete back against them in facilities, marketing, recruiting etc.  Expanding that line of thinking makes them feel they should be entitled to the money that their brand is bringing to bear annually, and it not going to support other schools entire athletic departments within their current conferences.  Close geography and historical nostalgia only go so far, one only has to look at Nebraska severing ties with schools they have been in a conference with for decades upon decades upon decades to understand the current environment.

     These 5 proposed teams are all heavy weights who have bloodied each other’s noses through the years already as well. Miami-Texas in the 1991 Cotton Bowl is one of the darker days of sportsmanship ever witnessed. Miami-Oklahoma in the 80's was memorable and carried championship implications with the results. Texas played USC in the 2005 Rose Bowl for a national championship. Oklahoma played USC in the Orange Bowl for one the year before. Notre Dame and Miami in the past have had some epic and heated battles especially the "Catholics vs. Convicts" games of 20 years ago. Notre Dame book ended Oklahoma with losses to start and end college football's all time winning streak at 47 games. Oklahoma on the 35th win in that streak smacked the Irish 40-0 in South Bend en route to a title. These are already built rivalries because of epic past clashes by each of the 5. They have an aggregate legitimate 30+ or so National Championships, around 60+ if you use "Alabama Football Math".

     Include the yearly games already played by Notre Dame/USC and Texas/OU, both of which are two of the best rivalries in all of sports period, and every single game would be an A+++ value on the marketing scale. NBC would now have a MUST WATCH game every week. The “NBC Game of the Week” would outshine wherever "College Gameday" pulled up to with their mobile asylum. NBC would eventually develop a competing pregame show and draw even more revenue. Even in certain down years these match ups would draw huge ratings. If scheduled correctly it would give 10 games that looked like this, in no particular order:

1 USC vs. Texas  
2 Notre Dame vs. Miami
3 Texas vs. Notre Dame
4 Oklahoma vs. Miami
5 Oklahoma vs. Texas
6 Miami vs. USC
7 Texas vs. Miami 10
8 Oklahoma vs. Notre Dame
9 USC vs. Oklahoma
10 Notre Dame vs. USC

     Add one rivalry game per team that could be tied up contractually long term, of which NBC would have half of the coverage rights on.

1 USC vs. UCLA
2 Texas vs. Texas A&M
3 Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State
4 Notre Dame vs. Michigan
5 Miami vs. Florida State

     As you usually only have rights to your home games, that would be either 12 or 13 prime time marquee games a year for NBC.  Each team would have 4-5 games per year of extreme difficulty against perennial powers.  All teams would keep their historically valued rivalries. They could (and make no mistake WOULD) schedule cupcakes the other seven games with little to no strength of schedule problems. I have actually included at the bottom of this article one example of how I think things would be scheduled for those interested.

     This plan further isolates the three best recruiting states to four schools thinking in geographical terms.  Notre Dame has built in advantages to offset the distances but would also get further recruiting dividends in all three states. This would put these 5 way ahead in future recruiting wars over most others.  How many schools could tell recruits, “We play in Texas, California and Florida and in some of the most hallowed stadiums in all of college football every year”? This all happening on national TV 4 or 5 times a year in prime time with mega exposure. If you think they rake in the top talent now, this would put these five teams further down the "selecting" avenue rather than the "recruiting" road, which almost seems impossible if you follow recruiting actively.

     What makes wheels turn in the real world though, as we all know, is money. It's going to take such an insane amount of money to make these five schools to basically handicap all other sports that it’s hard to quantify.  Men's and Women's Basketball, Baseball, Softball and a variety of sports at these schools would suffer and have to find creative solutions to impossible situations created by outside influences.  Playing each other in these secondary sports could be a decent starting spot.  There are also plenty of local teams in all sports that can be brought in to play for cash considerations. It could even be argued with the extra money they could schedule a much more home loaded annual line up in all the secondary sports like football would do.  Only a boatload of money makes such solutions available however.

     So it comes down to "What does this line up of games demand dollar wise?" I would venture to guess somewhere around $150-200 million a year easily. I am getting my figures by lining up these games against what current conferences yearly television contracts look like. The ACC for example received $155 million per year from ABC/ESPN for their package. Now granted part of that is basketball contract money, but the overwhelmingly majority comes from football. Football in a conference with only 2 “elite” teams basically demanded top dollar.  Looking at the Big Ten television deal with ABC/ESPN for football only and it comes out at $100 million annually. This figure gets supplemented with the Big Ten Network to push the numbers up to an astronomical level. The SEC has a $55 million a year deal with CBS then also an ABC/ESPN package which adds another estimated $150 million a year or so (again here also basketball and other sports are some of the pie).  This line up should demand more money than all those.  I would challenge any league to put up a weekly schedule that could come anywhere near rivaling this list. Add in the other seven games each team would have at home and NBC would have wall to wall coverage every Saturday.  I would even suspect you could get well over $200 million under the right circumstances in a true open bidding competition. A 15 year deal worth $150 million per year is a $2.25 billion dollar investment for NBC.  A 20 year $200 million per year deal would tie up $4 billion dollars.  Anything anywhere near those numbers is obviously takes serious thought.  In today's current economic climate, where everything is unstable at best, this might be tricky to pull off. NBC might be reluctant to tie up that kind of cash for that long.  This would guarantee NBC though, as a major player on Saturday's in college football for 20+ years to come. They would have 10+ hours every Saturday for 13 weeks (allow one bye per team) of games with big name teams.  The prime time match up every single week would be watched and have major national interest.
 
     If we then took $150 million and divided it by five it would be $30 million a year per school.  Now push the deal to $200 mill a year and it balloons to $40 million per team per year.  That’s $10-20 million a year more than the $20 million guaranteed to Texas and Oklahoma by the Big 12-2.  That’s well over double, approaching triple and even maybe quadruple for Notre Dame, Miami and USC and what they currently make.

     Leverage would extend over potential opponents as well. These "alliance teams" would never leave for a regular season away game against anyone outside the alliance except for one established rivalry game every other year.  Notre Dame actually kind of does this now. This pushes the home season for these teams to 9 or 10 a year. This offsets additional travel concerns from playing cross-country games annually. How can anyone complain about being forced into only two or three road games a year? It could be argued that athletes at these schools would be much better rested and less travel weary at year’s end, actually turning travel concerns into a positive.  The extra home games translate into millions of extra untold dollars. Ticket revenues, concessions, parking and countless other little money making streams would all get boosted.     

                                                                                                        
     Now let’s add in an additional revenue stream from "The Longhorn / Sooner/ Trojan etc. Network" and start drawing monthly fees from cable subscribers in California, Texas, Florida Indiana and Oklahoma plus many Catholic households all over America in all 50 states and the money suddenly becomes staggering. Putting all of the games not on NBC onto this network would guarantee devoted subscriptions from all 5 fan bases. The population from those five states alone would be roughly 90 million people, that would be an estimated 30 million or so television sets.  Many would end up getting subscribed and be paying these schools, unaware that they are doing so.  Think about it a minute. Forget about just sports fans a second. How many people just order all the channels available when dealing with cable/satellite providers?  How many people do you know who go through and pick their own line up of channels?  Most times people pick the package deals that would just include the network. Granted some people shop channels, but a vast majority would be contributing sixty or so cents a month. Such a network would also help promote the battered secondary sports greatly too.  Taking a cue from the Big 10 Network and partnering with NBC (B10 did it with Fox) for a 51/49 or a 67/33 or even a 75/25 split of ownership of the network to ensure success and better negotiation leverage would be wise. It would make it far easier to get into those “packages” that the cable/satellite providers market and sell.

     Having 9-10 home games a year will not harm the local economies in any of the cities either.  Ask Notre Dame and businesses in South Bend, who have 9 home games this year, about all the advantages. Local merchants, restaurants and watering holes would be praying this happens. Chamber of Commerce members would be actively lobbying for this if they ever thought it even remotely possible. The extra games coupled with incoming historic opponents (who all, except Miami, have insane traveling fan bases) would be a dream come true, more quantity AND more quality. With only 2 true road trips a year, traveling concerns for fans, while being farther away, would be easier and almost always guarantee a great destination.

     If triggered this would all have far, far reaching consequences within College Football and all of College Sports as we know it.  The SEC, the Big 10 and the "Independent Alliance" would control everything.  Every major historical football power would be encompassed within this triumvirate.  All of the other conferences combined would be unable to posses any power at all.  The rules would be re-written. The "Big Three" would reshape things as we know it. They would be able to do anything they wanted with near zero oversight or accountability.  The five "Alliance" schools would get a sweetheart BCS deal along the lines of what Notre Dame currently has, and probably a more liberal one because of their massive leverage. Like for example, a 9-3 record or better regardless of BCS ranking ensures any of the 5 "Indie Alliance" a spot in a BCS bowl. Additionally, the highest ranked "Alliance Team" regardless of record gets an automatic BCS berth.  This makes it easier to recover from bad stretches every program endures, as you could go 1-3 against the other alliance teams and schedule easy wins to get to an almost guaranteed BCS bowl.

     Remember the risk vs. reward mentioned above? Factor a 1-3 record vs. Alliance members into an automatic BCS berth and re-figure the equation if you have not arrived at the correct answer yet. The rewards go up and the risk goes down. Most would call that a winning combination.  Of course whenever someone wins, someone has to lose.

     The remnants of the PAC 10, Big East, ACC and Big 12 would all lose their automatic BCS bids.  The Cotton Bowl would be promoted to BCS status to get to 10 BCS Slots (Cotton, Fiesta, Rose, Sugar, and Orange). The SEC and Big Ten would demand 2 automatic spots in the BCS each.  The two team limit per conference in the BCS would be lifted and pushed to a four maximum limit or removed altogether. This would allow the "Big Three" to in some years take all 10 BCS slots and would potentially guarantee up to nine slots (five from indies, 2 b10, 2 sec) but could guarantee as low as five slots (2 b10, 1 indie, 2 sec).
 
    Rose Bowl would end up being the highest ranked Indie Alliance Team vs. Big Ten Champion.  Then the Sugar Bowl would match the SEC Champ vs. Highest Ranked BCS Team not in  the Rose or Sugar already. This would then allow for the Rose Bowl winner to play the Sugar Bowl winner in a National Championship +1 scenario.  This would ensure that the "Big Three" all have an automatic guaranteed qualifier to the National Championship Semi-Finals Game. This also allows for the "fourth" playoff spot to go to a "Big Three" member. Finishing second place in the SEC or Big Ten or the Indie Alliance would not instantly kill your title hopes.  Having two SEC teams in the Sugar Bowl that just played in the SEC Championship game might be an uncomfortable hiccup, but fixable with forethought. This would effectively guarantee at least 3/4 of all “Semi-Final Playoff Games" money goes directly to members of the "Big Three".  The "Championship Game" money would go to the participating schools thus making it highly likely every year that the "Big Three" would also receive 100% of that money and guarantee they receive at least 50% every year from now on.

     This plan leaves the "potential" for every team in America to participate in the BCS Championship though, which is what gets it past Congress and certain legal and/or perception problems.  It's what makes it all "fair" because it allows "access" to all, even if that "access" is a tiny almost hopeless chance.

     Fallout in the ACC (-2), Big East, Big 12(-2)(-3)and Pac 10(+2)(-1) would be great and widespread.  Nuclear char marks at schools like Duke, Kansas, North Carolina, Clemson, West Virginia, Virginia, Missouri, Oregon, Syracuse, Washington, Stanford, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Oklahoma State, Kansas State, Iowa State, Washington State, Cal, Baylor, Maryland, N.C. State, Texas Tech, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech and Boston College (just to name a few) could be seen for decades if not centuries. It would regulate some schools to permanent "Basketball Schools" if they work hard and got lucky or “Irrelevant Altogether" for a large majority of them. They would at best be on the same level as the current mid majors and in many cases way worse. Local economies would be affected negatively.  It would hurt and hurt a lot. One could argue there would be backlash from many places because a lot of people would literally loathe and detest these five schools, but these five schools would respond that everyone loathes and hates them now anyways and probably be correct. They are already the villains and have been for decades, why not get paid to play the part?

     ESPN/ABC would take a serious, serious hit as well.  They would have contracts with several of these new gimpy conferences. These contracts would be multi-year big dollar contracts that would suddenly be worth a lot less money.  Even though ESPN/ABC has out clauses in case of teams leaving conferences, and would cancel contracts and re- negotiate for less valued ones, it would mean a lot less profit.  Look for ABC/ESPN AND Congress AND the above listed schools AND certain state governments AND certain private nameless "powers that be" AND groups that cannot even be predicted at this stage, to all fiercely oppose this plan.  With the Supreme Court Ruling in NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma from June 27, 1984 in the "Big Three's" back pocket however, there is little anybody could even attempt to do about it though.

     Finally, the last thing a plan like this would need to become a reality, would be the personal touch of Dick Ebersol.  Since NBC already has Notre Dame’s contract rights it makes his and NBC’s involvement mandatory anyways, it literally can’t be anyone else.  It would take an icon like Ebersol to bring five superpowers together and keep them happy throughout what would be revolutionary but very difficult negotiations. Needing someone to lead such negotiations that could herd all five schools cannot be overstated. This would mainly be due to a lack of a league commissioner and also because this would have to be done very delicately and done in almost total secrecy.  Ebersol has that kind of ambition, foresight, resources, ego, ability, greed, respect and power. This single man’s presence by itself, maybe more so than any other factor (besides money of course!), makes this whole thing possible.
 
     Every college football analyst, even novice ones who eat lead paint chips for lunch, knows something is coming.  The wind and the sea seem angry, even the greenhorns on deck can sense it.  Most analysts though wrongly preach the 4 or 5 "Super-Conference" storm theory.  The radar and my instrument readings conclude something different.  We have 4 or 5 "Super-Conferences" now basically.  The only way it works is a 3 "Super-Conference" + 1 at large equals a +1 scenario.  I myself refer to it as "3+1=+1".  This is the possible impending "Monsoon of Doom".

      The storms of last off season's realignment are behind us and the clear skies of a new season are but few weeks old. As I ponder the future, I feel compelled to forewarn all college football fans everywhere who endured tense moments during the 2010 “Realignment Storm" to brace for the 2011 or 2012 "Realignment Hurricane".  This monster would seem to be gathering forces just off about every coastline in the entire world of college football. Time will tell if it actually makes landfall and possesses the actual destructive nature of a Category 5 or if it peacefully turns back out to the sea.

 One example of a two year cyclical schedule in the “Independent Alliance”:
 
    Each team would have one “bye” they could schedule anywhere in place of my chosen default school “Cupcake”. NBC would have rights to every home game for these five schools. The rights to “Outside of Alliance” away games would be held by those teams and/or their conferences.  This two year pattern could be repeated indefinitely and guarantees NBC an over the top “Game of the Week” on the back end of a triple header in prime time with big names participating in both front end games. Imagine the hold over audience from Oklahoma vs. Cupcake then Texas vs. Cupcake leading into a Notre Dame vs. USC prime time showdown. 

    Also note week one would have every team scheduled against a cupcake. This is done for two basic reasons. The first is that every team wants at least one “preseason” or “scrimmage” type game to start the season. None of these teams would really like a hard game out of the gate and would protest if they were the ones who had to do that and others did not.  The second being no marquee match up is needed to get ratings in week one. The excitement of a new season sells itself this week. Three consecutive games of A+ teams vs. Cupcakes or even Sub-cupcakes would draw huge ratings. What sense is wasting any of the headline match ups for no reason? Also in week 13, in some years, multiple “Games of the Week” would potentially play out that day giving you an exciting end of season finale to compete with conference championship games from other conferences.

Notre Dame:
   Year One:
1. Cupcake (H)
2. At Michigan
3. Cupcake (H)
4. Cupcake (H)
5. At USC – NBC Game of Week
6. Cupcake (H)
7. Miami (H) – NBC Game of Week
8. Cupcake (H)
9. At Texas - NBC Game of Week
10. Cupcake (H)
11. Oklahoma (H) - NBC Game of Week
12. Cupcake (H)
13. Cupcake (H)
   Year Two:
1. Cupcake (H)
2. Michigan (H) - NBC Game of Week
3. Cupcake (H)
4. Cupcake (H)
5. Cupcake (H)
6. USC (H) - NBC Game of Week
7. Cupcake (H)
8. At Miami - NBC Game of Week
9. Cupcake (H)
10. Texas (H) - NBC Game of Week
11. Cupcake (H)
12. At Oklahoma - NBC Game of Week
13. Cupcake (H)

Miami:
   Year One:
1. Cupcake (H)
2. Florida State (H) - NBC Game of Week
3. At Oklahoma - NBC Game of Week
4. Cupcake (H)
5. Cupcake (H)
6. Cupcake (H)
7. At Notre Dame - NBC Game of Week
8. Cupcake (H)
9. Cupcake (H)
10. USC (H) - NBC Game of Week
11. Cupcake (H)
12. Texas (H) - NBC Game of Week
13. Cupcake (H)
   Year Two:
1. Cupcake (H)
2. At Florida State
3. Cupcake (H)
4. Oklahoma (H) - NBC Game of Week
5. Cupcake (H)
6. Cupcake (H)
7. Cupcake (H)
8. Notre Dame (H) - NBC Game of Week
9. At USC - NBC Game of Week
10. Cupcake (H)
11. At Texas - NBC Game of Week
12. Cupcake (H)
13. Cupcake (H)

Oklahoma:
   Year One:
1. Cupcake (H)
2. Cupcake (H)
3. Miami (H) - NBC Game of Week
4. Cupcake (H)
5. Cupcake (H)
6. Texas – Dallas - NBC Game of Week
7. Cupcake (H)
8. At USC - NBC Game of Week
9. Cupcake (H)
10. Cupcake (H)
11.  At Notre Dame - NBC Game of Week
12. Cupcake (H)
13. Oklahoma State (H) - NBC Game of Week
   Year Two:
1. Cupcake (H)
2. Cupcake (H)
3. Cupcake (H)
4. At Miami - NBC Game of Week
5. Texas – Dallas - NBC Game of Week
6. Cupcake (H)
7. USC (H) - NBC Game of Week
8. Cupcake (H)
9. Cupcake (H)
10. Cupcake (H)
11. Cupcake (H)
12. Notre Dame (H) - NBC Game of Week
13. At Oklahoma State

Texas:
   Year One:
1. Cupcake (H)
2. Cupcake (H)
3. Cupcake (H)
4. USC (H) - NBC Game of Week
5. Cupcake (H)
6. Oklahoma – Dallas - NBC Game of Week
7. Cupcake (H)
8. Cupcake (H)
9. Notre Dame (H) - NBC Game of Week
10. Cupcake (H)
11. Cupcake (H)
12. At Miami - NBC Game of Week
13. Texas A & M (H) - NBC Game of Week
   Year Two:
1. Cupcake (H)
2. Cupcake (H)
3. At USC - NBC Game of Week
4. Cupcake (H)
5. Oklahoma – Dallas - NBC Game of Week
6. Cupcake (H)
7. Cupcake (H)
8. Cupcake (H)
9. Cupcake (H)
10. At Notre Dame - NBC Game of Week
11. Miami (H) - NBC Game of Week
12. Cupcake (H)
13. At Texas A & M

USC:
   Year One:
1. Cupcake (H)
2. Cupcake (H)
3. Cupcake (H)
4. At Texas - NBC Game of Week
5. Notre Dame (H) - NBC Game of Week
6. Cupcake (H)
7. Cupcake (H)
8. Oklahoma (H) - NBC Game of Week
9. Cupcake (H)
10. At Miami - NBC Game of Week
11. Cupcake (H)
12. Cupcake (H)
13. At UCLA
   Year Two:
1. Cupcake (H)
2. Cupcake (H)
3. Texas (H) - NBC Game of Week
4. Cupcake(H)
5. Cupcake (H)
6. At Notre Dame - NBC Game of Week
7. At Oklahoma - NBC Game of Week
8. Cupcake (H)
9. Miami (H) - NBC Game of Week
10. Cupcake (H)
11. Cupcake (H)
12. Cupcake (H)
13. UCLA (H) - NBC Game of Week