USC’s Big Ten life has come with a steep price tag, and not just in the way fans first imagined. The Trojans are undefeated and ranked, but they’ve also spent at least $4.4 million to build a September schedule that, by design, offered very little suspense.
That number covers USC’s first three opponents: $1.4 million to San Jose State University, $1.75 million to Fresno State University and $1.3 million to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The setup is simple enough.
A program with money pays a smaller one to come in, take the check and likely take the loss. It’s a guarantee game, or, less politely, a buy game.
For USC, that meant three early weeks bought in advance, with no real danger attached. Louisiana at Lafayette alone was paid $1.3 million to make the trip to Los Angeles.
The point wasn’t drama. It was insurance.
Buy games have been part of college football for years, and USC has used them before. In 2024, the 48-0 Utah State shutout was sandwiched between LSU in Las Vegas and Notre Dame at home.
In 2025, Missouri State University and Georgia Southern University were buy games set around a road trip to South Bend. At least those schedules still had one heavyweight matchup to give the month some pulse.
This fall feels different. With the Notre Dame series on hiatus, USC didn’t swap in another major nonconference opponent. The result is a slate that is thin on intrigue and even thinner on bodies in the stands.
The problem isn’t just the money. It’s what disappeared when USC left the Pac-12.
The old league brought familiar trips and old grudges, the kind that had been building since 1922. Instead of flying to Tempe or Palo Alto, the Trojans are now learning a new set of opponents while losing the sense of repetition that makes college football feel personal.
Oregon is the one name on the schedule that still carries some familiarity, and that’s only because the Ducks also abandoned the Pac-12. The same is true for a few other Big Ten opponents USC actually recognizes. Most of the rest are either new or only known from rare meetings on the sport’s biggest stages.
Take Ohio State. USC has played the Buckeyes 24 times since 1937, almost always at the Rose Bowl, but their Oct. 31 meeting will just be another conference game.
Penn State, which the Trojans have faced only 10 times between 1922 and the move to the Big Ten, returns Oct. 10 as part of the league rotation. Indiana comes next on Nov. 14, a team USC last played in 1982 and one the Trojans have beaten four times in four tries, a streak that predates the World Wide Web.
That’s the strange tradeoff here: the Big Ten brought USC bigger visibility, but it also stripped away the rhythm that made those old matchups matter. Rivalries need repetition.
They need grudges that stick. They need the same opponent every fall, the same fan base to roll your eyes at, the same game that feels bigger because everyone has lived with it for years.
USC’s old rivalries had that kind of weight, and they were passed down from one generation of Trojans to the next. The Rose Bowl clashes with Ohio State had a different kind of electricity because they were rare, blue-blood meetings that came around once in a while and meant everything when they did.
The last time USC football really felt worth the full campus walk to the Coliseum, Caleb Williams was doing Caleb Williams things on the way to the 2022 Heisman Trophy. He’s with the Chicago Bears now, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, and he left the same spring USC headed for the Big Ten.
So the Coliseum pull is different now. Maybe the one thing left that still looks like a real showcase is the USC-UCLA game at the end of the season, the last familiar rivalry relic in the Trojans’ new conference world.
In Other News...
USC Walks Into A Road Game That Could Get Awkward Fast
Rutgers is already in an uncomfortable spot before USC ever takes the field in this one. The Scarlet Knights have opened the season with back-to-back heavy losses, including a home defeat to UMass and another setback against Boston College, and the tone around the program has turned quickly as questions start to follow Greg Schiano into the week.
USC, meanwhile, walks into a road game where the opponents mood may be as much a factor as the matchup itself. The Trojans are getting Rutgers at a time when the Scarlet Knights are trying to steady a season that has already gone sideways, and if the noise around Schiano keeps building, this could become one of those trips where the football and the larger tension around the program are impossible to separate. [Read more 🡒]
USC Heads To Rutgers With A New Receiver Concern
USCs trip to Rutgers picked up a little more uncertainty when true freshman wide receiver Trent Mosley landed on the injury list and was ruled out for the game because of a knee ailment. Mosley has been part of the group the Trojans have leaned on for depth, and his absence comes at a point where the offense is trying to keep its receiver rotation steady heading into another road test.
Lincoln Riley said the timeline is still unclear, though the expectation is that it should not turn into a long-term issue. In the meantime, USC is looking at other options to absorb the snaps and production, with Zacharyus Williams and Terrell Anderson among the receivers who could be asked to take on more of the load. [Read more 🡒]
USC Fans Got The Jayden Maiava Shoulder Answer They Needed
Jayden Maiava gave USC plenty to feel good about in its win over Louisiana, piling up a career-high five touchdowns while also putting an end to the shoulder chatter that had lingered around him. The senior quarterback said he is healthy, and the way he played looked every bit like a passer operating without restriction, with freshman tight end Mark Bowman emerging as a major part of the offense with six catches and two scores.
For a Trojans team trying to build momentum, the timing mattered as much as the numbers. Maiava also spoke about getting ready for Rutgers and reflected on how far he has come over three seasons at Southern Cal, which adds another layer to a performance that was already important for the scoreboard and the injury conversation alike. [Read more 🡒]