USC Football: Trojans Will Face Four Top 25 Ranked Teams This Season

The Trojans have a tough slate ahead.

Robert Goddin-USA TODAY Sports

The Associated Press released the first AP Top 25 poll ahead of the 2024 college football season. USC football came in at No. 23 prior to the start of their first season as part of the Big Ten conference.

Several of the Trojans' new Big Ten rivals also made the poll, including Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Michigan, and Iowa. Ohio State came in at No. 2, Oregon landed at No. 3, Penn State is No. 8, Michigan is No. 9, and Iowa squeezed on the list at No. 25.

In total, USC will face four teams ranked in the AP Top 25 poll this season, including LSU (No. 13), Michigan, Penn State, and Notre Dame (No. 7). The Trojans begin their season on Aug. 31 in Las Vegas against an LSU team that seems to always rank high in the SEC.

USC will quickly face another highly-ranked team, heading to Ann Arbor to face Michigan on Sep. 21 for their third game of the year. The Trojans will go up against the defending College Football Playoff national championships in front of a rowdy Wolverines crowd that will arguably be their toughest game of the season.

Less than a month later, USC will host another Big Ten titan at Penn State. The good news for USC is that they will host the Nittany Lions at the Coliseum this time around.

Notre Dame is the highest-ranked team USC is scheduled to face, and the Trojans will host the Fighting Irish in their final regular season game of the year.

While the Trojans departed for the Big Ten in part to face the best teams in college football more often, they are actually slated to face fewer top-25 ranked teams than a season ago, when they were still part of the Pac-12.

The Trojans went up against five teams that ranked top-25 in 2023, going up against Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Notre Dame, and Louisville over the course of the season. The rankings are subject to change, meaning that by the end of the season, USC could top that number.

Part of the reason for that low number is the greater division and amount of teams in the Big Ten, keeping USC from playing every team each season. This means the Trojans will avoid facing teams like Oregon, Ohio State, and Iowa in Year 1, but will see them in future years.