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Lincoln Riley recognizes Alabama’s ‘championship’ nonconference scheduling: ‘Bama was ahead of the curve’
By Andrew Olson
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Lincoln Riley has taken a lot of heat from fans who feel he runs from tough competition. At Big Ten Media Days, Riley identified the program that he believes has handled scheduling the most effective way: Alabama.
“‘Bama was ahead of the curve for years, I thought, on how they scheduled in the non-conference,” Riley told reporters Wednesday, per On3. “They would occasionally hit the marquee non-conference game, they’d play two other not-very-good teams, they’d play one late so they got essentially a little bit of a bye week there late in the season. They didn’t schedule for their fans – they scheduled to win championships.
“My hope is we can do the best thing, schedule to win championships that includes a rivalry game for all that comes with that and all that it means. But if you get in the positions, you’ve got to make a decision on what the priority is.”
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Fans view Riley as scared of competition
Scheduling was bound to come up during Riley’s appearance at Big Ten Media Days, as the USC head coach has faced notable criticism when it comes to his teams facing nonconference opponents.
Sources told SDS columnist Matt Hayes that Riley’s USC squad sought to get out of playing its Labor Day Weekend game against LSU in Las Vegas, part of the marquee opening weekend for the 2024 college football season. Riley reportedly asked his agent, Trace Armstrong, to change the mind of fellow client Brian Kelly to change the LSU coach’s mind about playing the game.
In June, Ole Miss revealed that the program’s home-and-home series with USC for 2025 and ’26 had been canceled. While there has been speculation that SEC teams are clearing space for a ninth conference game in 2026, plenty of college football fans reacted to the news by accusing Riley of running from a difficult nonconference game.
Riley faced the “ducking competition” label before USC was making schedule headlines. Oklahoma’s move to the SEC, originally planned for 2025, was announced in 2021. At the end of the 2021 college football season, Riley made the stunning departure to leave Oklahoma for the USC job. Many fans on social media accused Riley of running from the grind of an SEC schedule.
Recently, many fans and media members felt Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione took a shot at Riley, without naming the former head Sooner, in a comment about OU coaches’ excitement for the SEC.
“I will tell you, without reservation, every coach that we talked to was excited,” Castiglione said. “And you know what, the ones that weren’t aren’t here anymore. This is Oklahoma. Either get with it or get on with it.”
Riley was asked about Castiglione’s quote Wednesday, but declined comment.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
