Notre Dame football in danger of losing yet another major rivalry

Conference realignment is taking its toll on college football but some teams have been affected more than others -- just as the Pac-12 (or the Pac-2). Notre Dame football has also been affected.

How is that possible? The Irish aren't part of a conference so it shouldn't affect them, right?

Well, according to Lincoln Riley at Big Ten Media Days, USC may have to worry more about what could help it get to the playoff rather than keeping a rivalry alive. He didn't admit that USC would sacrifice the historic Notre Dame rivalry series, but he said that it would be taken into consideration when the Trojans construct future schedules as part of the new-look Big Ten and what could help them make the playoff.

""Listen, we're not the first example of that. Look all the way across the country. There's been a lot of teams that sacrifice rivalry games. I'm not saying that's what's going to happen, but as we get into this playoff structure and if it changes or not, we get into this new conference, we're going to learn some about this as we go and what the right and best track is to winning a national championship. That's going to evolve.""

- Lincoln Riley at Big Ten Media Days

The Trojans and Irish have been playing every year and they have one of the best rivalries in college football. This is one that college football fans don't even want to go by the wayside.

Notre Dame has already sacrificed a couple of rivalry games which had been played every season like Michigan and Michigan State but it renewed the latter after a near-10-year break.

Seeing this rivalry disappear because of conference realignment and a tougher league schedule facing USC just means that college football could be losing more non-conference rivalries and must-watch games because teams will want an easy schedule before league play.

This is a major downside to conference realignment.