The BYU Cougars and the USC Trojans have scheduled a three-game football series for 2019, 2021, and 2023, BYU announced today at their Media Days.
In the first game of the series, BYU will host USC at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Sept. 14, 2019.
The second and third games of the series will both be played at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Thanksgiving weekend in 2021 (Nov. 27) and 2023 (Nov. 25).
“We have a huge number of Cougar football fans in Southern California who will love having a chance to see their team play twice against one of the best programs in all of college football,” said BYU director of athletics Tom Holmoe. “Cougar Nation will also be excited to have USC come to Provo.”
BYU and USC have only met twice on the football field. The Trojans defeated the Cougars in both games, 35-18 in 2003 in L.A. and 42-10 in 2004 in Provo.
BYU now has five games scheduled in 2019 and two in both 2021 and 2023. In 2019, the Cougars also host Nevada and Boise State and travel to Virginia and Washington State.
The Trojans now have two games slated in 2019 and 2023 and three in 2021. USC also plays Notre Dame each season and is supposed to play Tennessee in 2021 at a site to be announced.
Football Schedules
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Doesn't USC play UCLA Thanksgiving weekend?
No. Typically USC plays Notre Dame for their home game on Thanksgiving Weekends. USC also announced today that they would continue to play Notre Dame for the Thanksgiving home game through 2022.
This announcement is going to leave a lot of people in the state of Utah wondering why BYU and USC can play in November, but Utah and BYU cannot.
USC is a much more attractive an opponent than Utah. As a Husky fan, when Utah and Colorado entered the PAC12 it ended our annual rivalry with USC and gave us games with Utah and Colorado. We were the losers in that deal.
USC is certainly a far better opponent than Utah, however the Utah-BYU rivalry is a big deal to those involved. From my standpoint this scheduling agreement is a slap in the face to the University of Utah.
Maybe that will wake Utah up out of its druken pac10.2 stupor. They claim not to want to play BYU to limit the tough non conference games then they schedule Michigan. Utah wanted to show BYU that they are better than BYU now that they are in the Pac10.2. The reality is they are going to miss a bowl game for a second year and become less relevant. It is a slap that should wake Utah up, but sadly it wont. They will continue to claim greatness through losing seasons and association.
No one loves 2 for 1 deals but I like it. Only TH knows how difficult it is scheduling late November but it looks tough. And the only road games USC has scheduled, 2 for 1 or otherwise, beyond 2013 are Texas, Notre Dame, Tennessee and BYU. Good company.
A slap in the face to the University of Utah? I'm confident that BYU had offered these dates to Utah previously.
The slap at least from what we know of, is that USC can schedule ooc games after September and Utah cant. More likely it is that Utah has not pursued it, but without them saying otherwise the assumption is that they cant based on their own assertions in the past.
I doubt BYU offered Utah a 2 for 1 in Utah's favor.
Another 2 for 1 for BYU. Lol
The Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott likely offered a post-September waiver at the insistence of USC AD Pat Hayden, something he is very reluctant to do with Chris Hill at Utah working with Tom Holmoe. Rumors abound however that post 2016 the 2nd weekend in October might be in play for a BYU vs. Utah matchup. What will be interesting however will be any future series with Utah State since I think Holmoe is reluctant to agree to ANY future dates in Logan all the same as Chris Hill. A rotating payday game bus trip for the Aggies to SLC in even/odd years & Provo is a real possibility on that one particularly if BYU gets a league deal they can't say no to. BYU is not as commited to long term independence as some would be lead to believe.
I know it's a 2-1 but as a BYU fan, ending the year in sunny LA against USC? I'll take a 2-1. November schedules have been a big gripe with many fans. This solves it for two years. We need more teams like USC as the last game of the year.
Yes, I'm all for warm weather November games. I do wish that USC wasn't so snobby and would home and home it.
USC wasn't all that snobby. They do play in Provo in 2019, but the snobby part is when they wanted 2021 and 2023. Besides, those days could easy be thrown out because those dates are so far down the road..........
BYU is the team from Utah that we should've invited to join the Pac. Here in California I know tons of BYU fans, but I've never met even one University of Utah fan in the state.
Talk to Cal and Stanford. They said HELL NO if BYU won't play on Sunday.