[Goose]

DOMER NATION IS FURIOUS.  

But, their SoS was harmed by bad year for ACC. 

It was also harmed by USC not being even a top 20 team this year. Normally this game is one of the most difficult on ND's schedule. That hasn't been true lately. Stanford of course hasn't help the ND SoS for quite some time. IMO that is a good reason to not continue the series, and this latest situation makes it very probable it will not be renewed. Keeping USC is also less certain for similar reasons, but ND may believe USC will be "better" in the near future, while Stanford will not. Let's hope they are wrong on both counts.

usc does have the top ranked recruiting class for next year. so not a terrible bet to keep playing southern cal

USC often has very highly rated recruits. In the somewhat distant past, that often resulted in a good team and a high national ranking. Recently however, the team hasn't seemed to perform anywhere close to their recruit rankings/hype. IMO the under-performing will continue.

[Goose]

DOMER NATION IS FURIOUS.  

But, their SoS was harmed by bad year for ACC. 

It was also harmed by USC not being even a top 20 team this year. Normally this game is one of the most difficult on ND's schedule. That hasn't been true lately. Stanford of course hasn't help the ND SoS for quite some time. IMO that is a good reason to not continue the series, and this latest situation makes it very probable it will not be renewed. Keeping USC is also less certain for similar reasons, but ND may believe USC will be "better" in the near future, while Stanford will not. Let's hope they are wrong on both counts.

usc does have the top ranked recruiting class for next year. so not a terrible bet to keep playing southern cal

USC often has very highly rated recruits. In the somewhat distant past, that often resulted in a good team and a high national ranking. Recently however, the team hasn't seemed to perform anywhere close to their recruit rankings/hype. IMO the under-performing will continue.