USC is paying a lot to be this average.
On Saturday, the College Football Playoff No. 18 USC Trojans (7-3, 4-3 in Big Ten) once again lost a big game under fifth-year head coach Lincoln Riley, falling to the No. 9 Indiana Hoosiers (9-1, 6-1 in Big Ten), 27-13.
With the loss, the Trojans fell to 6-15 against ranked opponents under Riley, including 2-8 over their last 10 games dating back to the 2024 season. The result also effectively eliminates USC, which hasn’t competed for a national title since the BCS era, from CFP contention.
For a program that was the gold standard in the early 2000s and used to flip through coaches chasing those highs, USC has fallen into a cycle of mediocrity that its $11.5M man has proven incapable of breaking.
