You could argue that the USC Trojans have had the best offseason of any program in College Football.
They added the legendary Rob Ryan to their coaching staff, along with rising stars in Chad Savage and Trovon Reed.
They also stole away one of the brightest General Managers, Chad Bowden, from rival Notre Dame. They added Max Steinecker, Dre Brown, and Zaire Turner to the front office, all of whom will likely be GMs one day.
Couple this with the fact that the USC Trojans have the No. 1 2026 recruiting class in the nation, and there is a lot to be excited about.
Using all of this fuel, ESPN just updated its Football Power Index, and the Trojans ranked rather favorably heading into the 2025 season.
USC Trojans Rank In Top 25 In ESPN FPI
ESPN’s football power index is a predictive rating system that measures team strength and uses those analytics to forecast game results.
It is by no means a perfect system, and while it is supposed to take the human element out of ranking and forecasting, it still skews to favor specific tendencies and teams, meaning it strongly favors the SEC.
That being said, there is still realistic data that can be taken from it.
In their latest updated iteration heading into the 2025 season, the FPI ranks the USC Trojans at 19, within the Top 25.
Here is the full Top 25:
- Texas Longhorns
- Georgia Bulldogs
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- Ohio State Buckeyes
- Penn State Nittany Lions
- Oregon Ducks
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish
- Texas A&M Aggies
- Miami Hurricanes
- Tennessee Volunteers
- Clemson Tigers
- LSU Tigers
- Ole Miss Rebels
- Auburn Tigers
- South Carolina Gamecocks
- Oklahoma Sooners
- Michigan Wolverines
- Flordia Gators
- USC Trojans
- SMU Mustangs
- Kansas State Wildcats
- Arkansas Razorbacks
- Missouri Tigers
- Arizona State Sun Devils
- Nebraska Cornhuskers
As you can see, 13 teams in the Top 25 are from the SEC, while only 6 are from the BIG, and the ACC and Big 12 have 5 combined teams.
The Trojans are projected to go 8.3 – 3.9, or rounded, 8-4 on the season. They are given a 4.2% chance to win the BIG Conference, and given a 21% chance to make the College Football Playoff.
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It’s June, so these rankings don’t mean much, however, they do have a way of swaying voters. The season will begin with the AP Rankings and then the CFP rankings drop later in the season. The FPI is not the model used in rankings, but it is certainly viewed when voters are weighing all of the teams.
Regardless of the SEC bias, seeing USC in the Top 25 is a good sign. Now they need to beat the odds and shoot up the rankings.