Cal football: Sonny Dykes in favor of 8 game Pac-12 schedule, ending UCLA & USC every year

Sonny Dykes had his post-spring practice chat with the media yesterday where he chatted about a bunch of topics, including everything about the spring, the recruiting process, and more. We'll gather more of the details later for your viewing consumption, but let's just focus on one pertinent topic that Dykes addressed pretty strongly: The USC and UCLA yearly series.

Most Pac-12 schools are on a regular rotating schedule with regards to the football season. Teams trade off opponents every two years from schools outside of their division, so each Pac-12 team changes up their opponents from the other division.

The California schools don't have to worry about that distinction. In the original Pac-12 scheduling agreements, Cal and Stanford (North division) are guaranteed to play UCLA and USC (South division) each season. All four teams don't want to give up their regular trip to the other region of California. It's the biggest ticket draws of the season and a huge recruiting boon to play in Los Angeles/Bay Area every season.

Sonny Dykes might be willing to concede on that front. More from Jeff Faraudo at Bear Talk.

Dykes said he’s willing to sacrifice the tradition of playing long-time, in-state rivals USC and UCLA every year if that’s necessary to reduce the Pac-12 schedule to eight games in order to achieve consistency with other power conferences.

“I don’t think it would be my first choice. I don’t think it would be our fans’ first choice,” he said. “But something’s got to give. We just need to have some (nationwide) consistency.”

What do you think about the idea about Cal not playing UCLA and USC every year? What are your thoughts on an eight game Pac-12 schedule as opposed to nine?  Good or bad?