Written by Matt Zemek at Bloguin
The Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving are cherished pieces of college football, because they bring back the tradition, romance, and sweet nostalgia of this sport. They recall a time when college football — yes, not pure and innocent under the surface; coaches did cheat back then — was treasured and accepted for what it was, not what it needed to be.
Yes, the sport lacked a playoff. Yes, the sport featured lots of split national titles. Yes, the vast majority of the sport was not accessible by television for Americans. Yet, college football made and built its name for generations of fans. These fans were made by a few rivalries, among others:
Michigan and Ohio State playing in the cold and (usually) gray of a Midwestern autumn turning into winter.
Alabama and Auburn jousting in the cauldron of Iron Bowl hatred.
Notre Dame playing USC.
That last rivalry is unique on multiple levels, many of them evident and some not as readily.
What’s obvious about Notre Dame-USC: It is an intersectional rivalry; it’s a non-conference rivalry; and it’s a multi-time zone rivalry.
What’s not as obvious: The site of the game determines when it’s played during the season.
Michigan-Ohio State and the Iron Bowl are always late-November games these days, and have been for some time.
Notre Dame-USC, when played in South Bend, is an October game, stuck in the middle of the season. USC hosts UCLA late in the season, as is the case this year.
However, when Notre Dame-USC is played in Los Angeles, the game is on Thanksgiving Saturday.
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