USC took a small step in the AP Top 25, but ESPN’s latest bowl outlook still leaves the Trojans on the outside looking in when it comes to the College Football Playoff.
The No. 16 Trojans are 6-1 after their bye week, with their only loss coming against coach Dan Lanning and Oregon. A win over Washington and a trip to Penn State helped restore some confidence around Lincoln Riley’s team, but the projection picture hasn’t moved much with five regular-season games left.
ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach both kept USC out of the 12-team CFP bracket in their Week 7 projections. Schlabach has the Trojans headed to the Holiday Bowl, where he now has them meeting the No.
17 Wake Forest Demon Deacons on Dec. 28.
Bonagura again projected USC for the Las Vegas Bowl against Oklahoma on Dec. 31.
The only change this week came in Schlabach’s Holiday Bowl matchup. He replaced Pittsburgh with Wake Forest after the Panthers stumbled in the ACC, dropping back-to-back conference games following a 5-0 start.
Wake Forest has gone 6-1, with its only loss coming against No. 1 Miami earlier in the season, and three of its last four games have been blowouts.
If that matchup ends up happening, it would be the first meeting ever between USC and Wake Forest.
Still, these projections may not mean much once the Trojans get through the rest of the schedule. Three of their final five opponents are ranked in the top 10: No.
3 Ohio State, No. 6 Indiana, and No.
9 UCLA.
USC heads to Madison to face Wisconsin before returning home for a Halloween night showdown with Ohio State. That game looms as the biggest test left on the schedule, though Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin’s shoulder injury has added some optimism around a possible USC upset.
Freshman Luke Fahey is expected to make his first career start against the Trojans, and the game will be USC’s fourth appearance on NBC this season. The primetime setup should give the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum a loud atmosphere, even if Halloween festivities could affect the crowd.
After Ohio State, USC gets its second bye week of the season before traveling to Bloomington to take on defending champion Indiana. The Trojans then finish with Maryland and crosstown rival UCLA, in a Crosstown Rivalry that carries more than bragging rights because CFP implications could be in play.
If USC can get through the stretch with no more than one loss, the Trojans should stay in the playoff conversation. Riley is still chasing the program’s first-ever CFP appearance, but first comes a trip to Camp Randall Stadium and a Saturday night date with Wisconsin.
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Ohio States QB Situation Just Added Intrigue To USCs Playoff Path
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The Buckeyes 19-15 escape against Indiana was one of those games that left more questions than answers, with quarterback play uneven on both sides and injuries clearly affecting the flow. For USC, the broader takeaway is that the teams still standing between the Trojans and the end of the season are not all looking like clean, polished obstacles, and that kind of inconsistency could end up shaping how realistic their playoff push really is. [Read more 🡒]