This week, the USC football team will return home to host Northwestern in a rare Friday night game. The following week, the Trojans will be back in action at the Coliseum when they face Iowa on Homecoming. Earlier this week, the kickoff time for the Trojans and the Hawkeyes was officially announced.
USC vs. Iowa will be an early game, with kickoff at 12:30 p.m. Pacific time. The game will be televised by either CBS or Big Ten Network, with that to be announced following this week’s games.
Per the conference’s rules, the Trojans must appear in at least one Big Ten game on BTN. With USC having yet to hit that quota and Friday’s game already announced as airing on Fox, that means that one of the team’s final three games must be a Big Ten Network game. It seems unlikely that the Oregon game will not be on a major network, leaving Iowa and UCLA as the remaining options.
This will be USC’s earliest home kickoff of the season to date. After playing four home games that started at or before 1 p.m. Pacific time last season, the earliest start for any of the Trojans’ first five home games is 4:30 p.m. However, the early start time is not necessarily the worst thing for USC fans, as the women’s basketball team will face South Carolina at Crypto.com Arena at 6 p.m. that night, allowing fans to potentially attend both games on the same day.
USC and Iowa were ranked No. 19 and No. 20 in the first College Football Playoff rankings this week. However, the Hawkeyes will likely not stay there, as they host No. 9 Oregon this week in a massive game. If Iowa pulls of the upset, it would likely jump ahead of the Trojans in the rankings, while a loss could potentially drop Kirk Ferentz’s team out of the top 25 altogether.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Start time announced for USC-Iowa November 15 football game
Reporting by Adam Bradford, Trojans Wire / Trojans Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
