The Rutgers coach pointed out, at July’s Big Ten Media Days, that it was roughly the same distance from New Jersey to Los Angeles – 2,800 miles. He’d been through the details before, he reasoned. Football was football, he emphasized repeatedly, at any question trying to prod at the sheer reality of traveling cross-country in the Big Ten.

Friday, 11 p.m. ET (FOX) BetMGM College Football Odds: USC by 14. Series record: First meeting. WHAT’S AT STAKE? Fox bet it would be able to follow up Game 1 of a potential Yankees-Dodgers World Series with another game of interest to their respective metropolitan areas.

USC football prepares to play Rutgers on Friday night in the Los Angeles Coliseum. You can call it a must-win game if you want to, and we won't disagree with that, but USC isn't playing for a championship.