The start of the 2025 college football season continues to draw closer. This week, we got another sign that kickoff is just around the corner with the release of ESPN’s annual preseason Football Power Index (FPI) rankings.
Coming off of a 7-6 season last year, USC did not make the top 20 of the rankings. Perhaps more interesting, however, was the conference makeup of the list. Of ESPN’s top 20 teams, 11 are from the SEC, compared to just four from the Big Ten.
Given ESPN’s well-established relationship with the SEC, many fan bases may very well accuse the FPI rankings of being biased towards the conference. This group includes USC fans, who certainly feel as though there are not 11 SEC teams better than the Trojans.
ESPN’s FPI did have USC as a top-20 team on offense, with the Trojans tied with Tennessee at No. 12. It seems as though the computers have more faith in Lincoln Riley’s offense than they do in D’Anton Lynn’s defense.
Regardless, it is clear that ESPN’s FPI is not particularly high on USC heading into this fall. It will be up to the Trojans to try and use this as motivation and prove their doubters wrong on the field.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC not ranked in top 20 of ESPN’s preseason FPI
Reporting by Adam Bradford, Trojans Wire / Trojans Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
