USC news: Trojans' football team shows up at launch party for new NIL collective, TOMMY Group

USC athletics has clearly changed its stance on NIL

There was a ton of USC news this week, including the launch of the Trojans' new NIL collective.

Here's a roundup of the top headlines surrounding USC athletics as we head into the weekend: 

FOOTBALL NEWS

Lincoln Riley

- USC has a new NIL Collective — the TOMMY Group. At the group's 'Winter Welcome' launch party at Delilah in West Hollywood on Wednesday night, the entire football team and coaching staff showed up. That's significant because it shows that USC athletics has changed its stance on NIL. The university trusts this new group to help athletes in the space. The TOMMY Group and USC, while not direct partners, seem to be on the same page.

- BLVD, USC's in house NIL operation, is no more, according to multiple reports from the LA Times and The Athletic. 

Some clarification on BLVD, the NIL operation USC touted last fall:

BLVD, as it was previously known, is no more. But a group of donors who funded BLVD are now starting an NIL entity from scratch that will be a separate non-profit, board-run collective.

— Ryan Kartje (@Ryan_Kartje) February 17, 2023

- USC linebacker Eric Gentry posted on Instagram that he's having surgery on his ankle. He'll most likely be out for all of the spring.

- During their offseason workouts/practices in the last week, USC football players have been graded on the reps they take. The three grades are -1, 0 and 1 and are determined by how well a player executes the drill.

- USC received a crystal ball prediction from 247Sports.com's Blair Angulo to land 5-star Arizona tight end Duce Robinson.

MEN'S BASKETBALL NEWS

- USC is firmly on the bubble of most NCAA Tournament projections. ESPN's Joe Lunardi had USC as one of his first four out teams in his latest bracketology post on Thursday. Beating woeful Cal on Thursday evening most likely didn't improve the Trojans' tournament chances. 

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL NEWS

- The Trojans earned their first AP Top 25 ranking since 2016 this week coming in at No. 25. USC plays at No. 3 Stanford on Friday night and at Cal on Sunday.

BASEBALL NEWS

- USC opens the season on Friday with a three-game series against Marist. Here's the Trojans projected depth chart. 

- Duce Robinson plans to play both football and baseball in college, so if the 5-star tight end picks the Trojans, he could potentially start in the outfield for USC next year.

TRACK & FIELD NEWS

- The ribbon cutting ceremony for the Colich Throws Center in Wilmington will be held on April 7. USC donor and former Trojan thrower John Colich financed the project. The facility has three discus/hammer rings, a javelin runway, two shot put rings and a weight room. The center will host USC throwing events in the future, provide USC throwers with a state of the art practice facility and it will be the official warmup/training field of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.