USC coach Lincoln Riley shares brutal message on key difference with Big Ten, SEC football originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
USC Trojans coach Lincoln Riley enters his fifth season this fall. Although he still has yet to reach the College Football Playoff, he recently admitted the Big Ten is in a better place with the additions of the Trojans, Washington Huskies, UCLA Bruins and Oregon Ducks than previously.
Taking it a step further, Riley proposed that an argument could be made it is effectively better than the SEC as it has been in several years.
“I think it’s pretty clear that the Big Ten and the SEC have separated themselves,” Riley told On3's J.D. PicKell “I think everybody in college football understands that. That’s just the reality of where the situation is, in terms of the schedules. I know everybody wants to sit there and debate those two conferences, but the reality is, both conferences are fantastic. Both conferences, you play elite-level teams very, very often."
Riley's respect toward the SEC isn't an accident, but still sides with the Big Ten as the better conference currently.
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“The strengths of schedules are very different, and I think that’s honestly made rankings and playoff rankings that much more difficult," Riley said. "The discrepancy in schedules right now has never been higher in football than where it is now. You’re asking humans to do a very difficult job, given how we currently rank teams. I think guys know now that if you come to USC and play in the Big Ten, you’re gonna play one of the best schedules in the country. You’re gonna play marquee teams on the road and certainly here in L.A. at The Coliseum. Your strength of schedule is not going to be questioned.”
Riley's team faced the meat of it near the end of last season, falling to the Oregon Ducks in Eugene and ultimately missing the CFP entirely.
But Riley remains optimistic the best is yet to come.
"And we did it better than what we have done in the first few years,” Riley said. “And there was some real progress, even despite the number of injuries having to deal with. You’re not going to win all these games the same way. Every game is going to be a little bit different. And if you want to be an elite team, you want to be a championship team, you have to learn how to do that, and a program has to learn how to do that. And we are showing some pretty exciting signs.”
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We'll find out this fall if Riley is held true to his word.