I'd be surprised if they moved those games. As much as I like Howland, I hate his scheduling. Pitt always played a cupcake non-conference schedule, and the first thing he did at UCLA was complain about the schedule. He's never wanted those non-conference games during USC week. That bothers me, because that's always been sort of a tradition.

I'd rather see them play a tough schedule and lose a few than beat up on patsies.
 

I hope Howland recognizes a significant difference between the Big East and the Pac-10: conference games on ESPN. This makes a huge difference in terms of exposure, so it's important for us to play high-profile non-conference games. The Notre Dame game this past year is a perfect example - winning that game really put us back on the map nationally. And I think when it was played (just a few weeks before the tourney, during the conference season) also helped, but I can see how it's really tough on the team to have a big game during the SC week. From a fan's perspective, I agree with you that it would be somewhat sad to break tradition and only play SC during those weeks.