The ESPN FPI top 25 rankings have been released, and USC is nowhere to be found. The Trojans somehow come in at No. 35 overall, and that raises the eyebrows of many. The consensus is that USC will be one of the more improved teams and will have one of the best offenses in the nation.
For those who aren’t in the know, ESPN’s College Football Power Index (FPI) was developed in 2013 as a way to measure team strength and predict game and season outcomes going forward. Over the years, fans have clamored for ESPN to open the “black box” of FPI and share more information.
Expectations are sky high for the Trojans and first-year head coach Lincoln Riley. Vegas has their betting win total at 9.5. USC is headed to the Big Ten in 2024, but the Men of Troy still have unfinished business in the Pac-12 for the next two years. It starts September 3 at home versus Rice.
With all the firepower that USC has, there are many question marks on defense, so we’ll see how the season goes for the Trojans. The main games to look out for are Utah in mid-October, then UCLA and Notre Dame in November. A sleeper game is early in Week 2 at Stanford, on the road in Palo Alto.
[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbz8sj88pxak7gd player_id=01f5k5y2jb3twsvdg4 image=https://trojanswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[listicle id=46340]