USC’s season opener on Saturday did little to hide what was missing from the schedule.
Instead of a September-style showdown with Notre Dame, the Trojans opened against San Jose State, and the result was a late-August crowd that never came close to filling the Coliseum. The game was added after USC and Notre Dame couldn’t agree on playing the rivalry this season, leaving USC with a matchup that felt a long way from the kind of game that usually defines the sport’s biggest weekends.
Coliseum looks about one-third full in the late August heat. pic.twitter.com/bJweCuT3Nh
- Ben Bolch (@calpostbbolch) August 29, 2026
The sight matched the mood around the sport’s recent scheduling trend. More schools are steering away from Power 4 nonconference games, trying to protect their College Football Playoff case from a damaging loss. But the tradeoff is obvious: fans are being asked to show up for games that don’t carry the same pull, and many simply aren’t interested.
That was on display again with ticket prices, which had already been making the rounds during the week. On Saturday, they had dropped as low as $6, and even that didn’t bring much of a crowd into the building.
@TickPick.
12 p.m. - San Jose State at USC: $6
7 p.m. - Phillies at Angels: $5 pic.twitter.com/6LuBsFgB2y
- Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) August 29, 2026
The encouraging part for fans of the rivalry is that Notre Dame and USC reached an agreement this offseason to get the series back on track. Saturday’s turnout was another reminder of why that matters. Games like this don’t have the same draw, and college football is better when matchups with real weight stay on the calendar.
In Other News...
USC Just Got Another Reminder It No Longer Looks Like An Elite Program
USCs place in the national conversation has become a little easier to measure by who is missing from the preseason spotlight. The Trojans did not place a single player on the USA TODAY Sports preseason All-America college football team, a list that leaned heavily toward the sports familiar heavyweights from Oregon, Ohio State, Indiana, Georgia and Texas. For a program that still carries a blueblood name, it is another sign that the market no longer treats USC like one of the sports defining powers.
The bigger concern is how often this sort of reminder keeps arriving for a team that has not reached the College Football Playoff in 12 seasons and now heads into a pivotal 2026 campaign under Lincoln Riley. USC is still being measured against the standard set by programs such as Ohio State and Oregon, but the preseason rankings suggest it has work to do before it can claim that tier again. For a fan base used to thinking in championships, the gap between reputation and reality is becoming harder to ignore. [Read more 🡒]
USC May Have Found A New Weapon Sooner Than Expected
USCs 42-26 win over San Jos State offered an early glimpse of a player who may have arrived sooner than expected. True freshman Trent Mosley caught seven passes for 118 yards in his college debut, becoming the first USC freshman since 2014 to clear 100 receiving yards in a first game and giving the Trojans another dynamic option to watch as the season unfolds.
The performance came on a day when USC was also sorting out its leadership structure, naming Tobias Raymond, Kilian OConnor, Alex VanSumeren and Jayden Maiava as permanent captains for the season. OConnor is currently sidelined by injury but remains part of that leadership group, while the program also unveiled the Progressive Insurance logo on the field as part of a multiyear sponsorship agreement, another sign of how much is changing around the team even as Mosleys emergence grabs the attention. [Read more 🡒]
USC Freshman TE Is Drawing A Comparison Trojans Fans Will Notice
Mark Bowman has barely gotten his USC career underway, but the freshman tight end is already generating the kind of buzz that tends to follow special talent. After a quiet debut in which he had limited production, Bowman still left enough of an impression for college football analyst David Pollack to point to his potential, which is exactly the sort of early conversation Trojans fans like to hear about a young pass-catcher in their system.
The comparison gaining traction is one USC supporters will recognize quickly: Brock Bowers. The former Georgia star piled up a rare college rsum, winning two national championships and the Mackey Award twice before heading to the Las Vegas Raiders, and an SEC coach reportedly sees some of that same upside in Bowman. For a freshman just beginning to carve out his role, being mentioned in the same breath as Bowers says plenty about the ceiling USC thinks it may be working with. [Read more 🡒]