Instant Reaction: USC football's 2026 schedule release
Peristyle Podcast - USC Trojan Football Discussion
USCFootball.com - Ryan Abraham, 247Sports, USC, USC Trojans, USC football, College Football
4.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
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Summary
The dates for 11 of USC football's 12 games, including all nine conference games, were released Tuesday. After digesting all of the matchups and schedule logistics, USCFootball.com writers Connor Morrissette and Shotgun Spratling offer their thoughts on USC's 2026 slate USC's schedule for next season is listed below. The Trojans still have one non-conference remaining game that hasn't been finalized yet. It's expected to be in Week 0. Saturday Aug. 29: OPEN Saturday Sep. 5: vs. Fresno State Saturday Sep. 12: vs. Louisiana Saturday Sep. 19: at Rutgers Saturday Sep. 26: vs. Oregon Saturday Oct. 3: vs. Washington Saturday Oct. 10: at Penn State Saturday Oct. 17: BYE Saturday Oct. 24: at Wisconsin Saturday Oct. 31: vs. Ohio State Saturday Nov. 7: BYE Saturday Nov. 14: at Indiana Saturday Nov. 21: vs. Maryland Saturday Nov. 28: at UCLA
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | For USC Football.com, Connor Morrisett and Shotgun Sprattling. We're here to break down |
| 0:12.4 | USC's 2026 football schedule, which the Big Ten dates were released today. We know when USC |
| 0:20.7 | will play 11 teams on its schedule. |
| 0:22.9 | They still have one game that hasn't been finalized and we'll get into all of that. |
| 0:26.1 | Chuck, and how are you? |
| 0:27.5 | And in there, I'm excited the fact that the two East Coast games aren't right together, for one, |
| 0:32.8 | because I was worried about that. |
| 0:34.2 | You know, if there would be like two weeks apart type of thing. |
| 0:37.5 | A little bit of separation there, but they are both in the earlier part of the season. So I'm going to have some family come up. It should be good weather when they come to Rutgers and to Penn State. So I'm excited about those two games in particular. But it's going to be a difficult schedule for USC. Let's jump into it and discuss what the know, what the charges could do with this, with this gauntlet that they have going forward. |
| 0:59.1 | Sounds good. I can run through the schedule here quickly. So the latest intel I've heard, Chuck, I'm sure after seeing the release of the schedule, if you hadn't seen what I posted on our website, you were aware of this. It sounds like USC's going to play their first game week zero at home, but they don't know |
| 1:15.3 | who the opponent will be yet. |
| 1:16.7 | So they have what we expect to be a non-power four game week zero. |
| 1:22.0 | And then in week one, it'll be Fresno State, week two, Louisiana, week three at |
| 1:27.4 | Rutgers, week four, home against Oregon, |
| 1:30.3 | week five, home against Washington, week six at Penn State, week seven by, week eight at Wisconsin, |
| 1:38.2 | week nine, home against Ohio State, week 10 by, so two buys for USC because of the week zero game, |
| 1:43.8 | week 11 at Indiana, the defending champs, week 12, home against Maryland, week 13, not hosting Notre Dame this year at UCLA to end the 2026 season because no Notre Dame game this year. |
| 1:58.1 | Where do you want to start, Chuck? |
| 1:59.0 | And it looks like USC should begin four and oh, and then that's when things get interesting. Yeah, just real quick with that week zero game, |
| 2:06.5 | which you mentioned, they would eat USC because they still have a non-conference game to schedule, |
| 2:12.2 | they would either have to give up one of those buys. And this is a one by season, whereas last year, |
| 2:17.1 | I believe was a two-by season for everyone. |
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