USC was the story of the college football offseason after hiring head coach Lincoln Riley and signing a pile of elite transfers.
Now comes the hard part: putting it all together and returning USC to the ranks of the relevant and in the College Football Playoff chase.
First up is a home date against Rice. What do the experts think of the game? Let's see how the football index computer predicts the matchup.
USC kicks off the 2022 college football schedule against Rice
Football Power Index gives the huge margin of victory to USC, with a 96.1 percent chance to beat the Owls in the Week 1 opener.
That leaves Rice a 3.9 percent shot to upset the Trojans at the Coliseum.
The bookmakers are also siding with the Men of Troy, who come into the game as 32.5 point favorites at the Caesars Sportsbook.
FPI rates USC as the No. 33 team nationally in its first college football rankings, good for third in the Pac-12 behind Oregon and leader Utah.
AP top 25 voters were more generous, naming USC as the No. 14 team in the preseason polls.
USC is projected to win 9.5 games on the season, with a 12.8 percent chance to win the conference and is good for 6.4 percent odds to make the College Football Playoff.
The index projects USC is 7.8 points better than the teams on its schedule on average.
ESPN Football Power Index (FPI) college football rankings are a measure of team strength that predicts a team’s future performance.
Rankings and scores predictions are based on 10,000 simulations of a team’s season, using a combination of analytics, including scores to date, quality of opponents, and a team’s schedule.
According to AP Top 25 poll
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