How USC and UCLA should adjust if a 24-team CFB Playoff arrives
If a 24-team College Football Playoff does arrive, USC and UCLA need to move quickly to preserve the importance of their rivalry
A 24-team College Football Playoff, if it happens, means more rounds of playoffs. That means late-season rivalries might involve teams resting their starters for the first round of the CFP. USC and UCLA therefore need to make adjustments when the time comes.
It is problematic that the rivalry games are played right before the conference championship games. With conference title games possibly on their way out, the 24-team playoff could mean that the last week of the regular season -- rivalry week -- immediately precedes the first round of the playoff. USC and UCLA therefore need to realize that in order to ensure their rivalry means everything, and that resting starters is never a possibility or a question for their annual game, they should move their game up a week so that it's not the finale of the regular season.
The Trojans and Bruins , instead of playing a cupcake opponent in late August or on Labor Day weekend, should schedule that cupcake for the season finale so that if either team is going to the expanded 24-team CFP, they can rest starters for that game on that final weekend. This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC football and UCLA can think ahead for new College Football Playoff