The USC Trojans will be looking to make the College Football Playoff for the first time in program history this season. USC has a difficult regular season schedule, which won’t make it easy for them to get in the dance. 

USC Projected to Miss Playoff

Chris Low of On3 made his College Football Playoff preseason predictions for the 12-team field. Low has three Big Ten teams making the field: the Ohio State Buckeyes, Oregon Ducks, and Indiana Hoosiers. He left USC out. 

Low also picked the games in his bracket and has Ohio State winning the national title over the Georgia Bulldogs. If this were to happen, it would be the fourth straight season with a Big Ten team winning the national title. 

Did USC get snubbed from this projection?

The Trojans are scheduled to play three of the teams in Low’s playoff field: Ohio State, Oregon, and Indiana. USC will host both Ohio State and Oregon before going on to the road to play the defending national champions, Indiana. 

These are all extremely difficult games for USC and ones that they will most likely be underdogs in. If USC loses all three of them, it will be a narrow path to make it in the playoff. Outside of these three games, USC also has a road game against the Penn State Nittany Lions. Penn State is a team that struggled last season, but looks poised to bounce back under new head coach Matt Campbell. USC has not fared well in tough games under coach Lincoln Riley so winning at Happy Valley will be a test. 

USC is coming off a 2025 season win which they went 9-3, with all three losses coming on the road (Illinois, Notre Dame, and Oregon). The loss at Oregon essentially eliminated them from playoff contention. 

USC has not yet proved that they are a playoff caliber team so them not being in the 12-team field projection is fair. They’ll have the opportunity to prove the skeptics wrong on the field when the season kicks off. 

According to DraftKings Sportsbook, USC has odds of +240 to make the playoff and odds of -330 to miss it. The oddsmakers don’t think this will be the year finally makes it into the playoff. If USC doesn’t make the playoff, how would the fanbase react?

USC is one of the most successful programs in college football history, with countless national titles and conferences titles in their trophy case. Since 2009, they have not consistently been able to reach those heights. USC has won one conference title and zero playoff appearances since 2009.

Lincoln Riley was hired prior to the 2022 to restore the glory. In his first four seasons, Riley has a record of 35-18. While it’s not a bad mark by any means, the expectation is much higher at a place like USC. If he can’t get USC to the playoff in his fifth season, the pressure will mount even larger. 

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