Is a 10-2 USC team guaranteed a College Football Playoff berth?

USC fans want to know if 9-3 gives USC better than a 50-50 chance of making the playoff.

One caller on our USC football show at The Voice of College Football was curious if a 9-3 Trojan team can get into the College Football Playoff. We discussed the scenarios that make it likely a 10-2 USC team can’t be kept out of the playoff.

We wrote on this subject earlier in August:

Texas plays Michigan before Michigan plays USC. The Trojans need Michigan to beat Texas, which leads us into the broader conversation about USC and a 9-3 record making the playoff: USC needs the Big Ten to be elite, and it should hope that Big Ten teams win big games against non-Big Ten teams. Michigan over Texas is a perfect example. If Michigan beats Texas and USC, and USC and Texas are both 9-3, USC’s games against LSU and Notre Dame give the Trojans enough schedule strength to offset Texas’s game against Georgia. If Texas is 9-3 but loses to both Michigan and Georgia, chances are USC will have better wins than the Longhorns.

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