re: Are college football rivalries still important?

i would call the USC/ND rivalry over-rated. I think now people see Alabama/Auburn and Michigan/Ohio State, Florida/Florida State, OU/Texas as more important than ND/USC. The schools are so far apart there's no regionalism to it. You don't run into someone who's a ND fan if you live Los Angeles as much as someone who lives in Toledo runs into a Michigan fan.

ND has a good rivalry with USC but you play in South Bend in October and Los Angeles in November which is a good idea though which is a an offer some big ten teams and SEC teams need to make with each other.

Have LSU come up to East Lansing or Ann Arbor in September and then have MSU or UM visit Baton Rouge in October or November to minimize the weather.

But it would be cool to see MSU have to play LSU in early September and to see LSU play MSU in November when it's snowing. lol.