USC football versus Fresno State is an all-California matchup which has been staged multiple times in Southern California over the years. USC's ugly loss to Fresno State in the 1992 Freedom Bowl was in Anaheim, but the Trojans have hosted the Bulldogs multiple times in the Los Angeles Coliseum, most famously in the 2005 game which cemented Reggie Bush's Heisman Trophy. In those games, USC represented the Pac-10/Pac-12 Conference, while Fresno State was in the WAC, and later the Mountain West.
Here we are, all these years later. USC plays Fresno State in the Coliseum once again. Just like old times, one team will represent the Pac-12 while another team will stand on the other sideline as a nonconference opponent.
Wait a minute!
Yes, the switcheroo
is hard to process, even now. Fresno State will be the Pac-12 team in this game, and USC will be the non-Pac-12 team. It's a reminder of how wild and weird and crazy conference realignment has been.
USC playing Fresno State but not Stanford or Cal is hard to digest. Fresno State being seen as one of the favorites to win the Pac-12 this year, along with Boise State, just feels wrong. It's certainly not the world any of us grew up in or ultimately wanted.
A team will wear a Pac-12 logo on its jersey this Friday in a game hosted by USC ... and it won't be the Trojans. You can read that sentence a million times and never feel comfortable absorbing the information.
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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC versus Fresno State involves a Pac-12 team - not the Trojans
