Alabama broke its commitment to play a home-and-home series against Michigan State during the 2016-17 seasons, and besides tongue-in-cheek cracks about the Tide running scared from traveling to "Beast Lansing," there's no practical reason to criticize the move.

Nick Saban cited the fact that playing neutral-site non-conference games, rather than in an on-campus stadium, was "better for business." He's probably correct, at least in the short term.

View photos

Who's to argue, anyway?

Saban has built Alabama into the nation's premier program, winning three of the last four national titles. He believes in a fairly simple scheduling system. Play one neutral-site game against a "name" opponent in an NFL stadium in a prime recruiting area (Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth, Jacksonville) and then bring three weak teams to Tuscaloosa, often including one from the Sun Belt and one from the old Division I-AA. Let the power of the SEC take care of the rest.

With the SEC expansion last year placing a burgeoning Texas A&M team onto the schedule each season, it makes even more sense. And by 2016, the SEC could require nine conference games, rather than eight.

So out goes Michigan State, even if it hardly seemed like much of a threat. And gone, apparently, are any games on non-SEC campuses.

It is not like Crimson Tide fans care. Saban could replace the schedule with four high school programs, declare it good for recruiting, and they'd pack Bryant-Denny and call him a genius. You'd imagine they'd love the idea of sending the Alabama brand around the country for all to marvel at, let alone getting more opponents they've heard of coming to town. But beating the hell out of some underfunded program seems to be enough. It's like that everywhere these days.

Safe and boring is probably smart.

It's just, well, rather safe and boring.

And it should make everyone miss Pete Carroll even more.

The last college football juggernaut before this era of Crimson Tide dominance was Carroll's Southern California Trojans of last decade. They had so much talent, so much power, so much exceptional coaching, that they were capable of overwhelming everyone.

USC has always believed in playing the biggest games imaginable. Maybe it's the proximity to Hollywood, where blockbusters rule. Maybe it's competing for fans in a major market with plenty of distractions. Maybe it's just how Trojans operate – supremely confident.

Whatever it is, USC, Notre Dame and UCLA are the only teams in college football to never play a Division I-AA team. It's more than that, however. USC is forever eager to take its team on the road, all over America, and showcase everything the program is about. The Trojans do it even while still playing a rigorous conference slate.

It took on special importance when USC was what Alabama is today – the sports showcase program, capable of causing immense excitement just by showing up. USC was a happening. Everywhere.

And it was perfect for Carroll, who spent most of his career in the NFL. He saw no benefit to cupcake games. His entire program was built on competition. He wasn't looking for one good game; he wanted all good games.

"We will play anybody that will play us," Carroll said back in 2003. "It gives us a challenge and makes us a good football team. I don't care if it's the beginning of the year or the end of the year."

Story continues