USC’s Halloween date with Ohio State now has a kickoff time, and the Trojans are staying in NBC’s prime-time lane.
The No. 16 Trojans will face No.
3 Ohio State at 4:30 p.m. PDT on NBC when the Buckeyes come to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Oct.
- It is the first time Ohio State will play at the Coliseum since 2008, and it gives USC its fifth straight game on the network in the prime-time slot.
For USC, the schedule keeps stacking up on the same stage. The Trojans head to Wisconsin on Saturday to take on the Badgers in that same prime-time window, then come home for the matchup with Ohio State.
USC enters the week at 6-1 overall and 4-1 in the Big Ten. The Trojans dropped their game against Oregon in the Coliseum, then responded with wins over Washington at home and Penn State in State College. The bye week that followed gave USC time to look ahead to the rest of its 2026 opponents and also get healthier for the stretch run.
Ohio State arrives with its own momentum, though the Buckeyes picked up a notable concern in Bloomington. The third-ranked Buckeyes are 6-1 overall and 4-0 in Big Ten play after beating Indiana on Saturday, but they will likely be without starting quarterback Julian Sayin for the Halloween game after he injured his throwing arm against the Hoosiers.
The Buckeyes opened the season with a loss to then-No. 4 Texas, then ripped off five straight wins over Kent State, Illinois, No.
15 Iowa on the road, Maryland and Indiana on the road. They have a bye before traveling west.
USC’s history with Ohio State tilts the Trojans’ way overall. The Trojans are 13-10-1 all time against the Buckeyes, though the most recent meeting ended in a 24-7 Ohio State win in the 2017 Cotton Bowl. Before that, USC had won eight straight in the series, a run that included four neutral-site games in the 1972, 1974, 1979 and 1984 Rose Bowls, home-and-home sets in 1989 and 1990 and again in 2008 and 2009.
After the Ohio State game, USC gets another bye week before heading to Bloomington to play No. 6 Indiana on Nov.
- The Trojans then return home to host Maryland before closing the regular season at No.
9 UCLA.
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Mark Hankins had reason to feel good about the overall performance, even if the final margin kept it from being the breakthrough finish the Trojans wanted. USC showed it can stack strong rounds across the lineup and stay in the mix with good teams, which matters as the schedule keeps getting more demanding. The frustrating part is that the progress was real, but the reward was just out of reach. [Read more 🡒]