2023 college football offseason is a time for USC fans to study the Big Ten
USC fans have historically paid a lot of attention to Michigan and Ohio State in the month of December, before any of the many Rose Bowl games between the Trojans and the Wolverines or Buckeyes. From the late 1960s through the 1980 Rose Bowl, USC versus Michigan or Ohio State was the most common Rose Bowl matchup.
USC-Michigan had a mini-revival at the Rose Bowl during the Pete Carroll years. The two schools met twice in the Granddaddy. Carroll’s USC program had a home-and-home series with Ohio State just before the NCAA hammer came down and Carroll left for the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks.
Entering 2023, USC fan interest in Michigan and Ohio State will take on different dimensions. Trojan fans will study the Big Ten’s two best programs not to scout a possible January clash, but because this will be the competition — the foremost focus of USC’s path to the College Football Playoff — in future seasons. Michigan and Ohio State figure to become the main obstacles to USC’s rise in the college football world, all because of the Trojans’ move to the Big Ten.
Trojans Wire talked about this with Mark Rogers at The Voice of College Football:
