There is still a lot of doubt in the USC Trojans even after their impressive 3-0 start. The Trojans finally cracked the AP Poll top 25 teams in college football last week, slotting in at a No. 25 ranking. The Trojans’ most recent opponent entered the Los Angeles Coliseum 3-0, but Michigan State was widely doubted going in.
In a recent rankings piece on ESPN before Saturday night’s, Bill Connelly labeled the Spartans as one of worst remaining unbeaten teams in the country. Spartans Wire Robert Bondy broke down Bill Connelly’s ranking of the Spartans in his recent feature. Here are Bondy’s thoughts on the poor ranking:
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“Bill Connelly of ESPN released a rankings of every remaining undefeated team on Monday, and let’s just say he isn’t buying into the Spartans‘ 3-0 start. Of the 39 remaining undefeated teams, Connelly has the Spartans dead last at No. 39 in his rankings. For some perspective, that means Connelly has the following teams ranked ahead of the Spartans: UNLV, North Texas, Memphis, UCF, Rutgers, Maryland, Navy, Houston and California. Like Louisville, Jonathan Smith’s Spartans have basically played precisely to projections in 2025. Unlike Louisville, it won’t be great if that continues: They’re projected underdogs against eight of nine Big Ten opponents.”
“I respectfully have to disagree with Connelly on this one. Not that Michigan State could very well be underdogs in nearly all of the games they’ll play the rest of this year, but with the fact that teams like Navy, North Texas and UNLV are ranked ahead of the Spartans. Those are very good group of five schools, but come on… that’s just flat out insulting to the Spartans. Michigan State will have its first opportunity to prove Connelly wrong in a massive road test this week at USC. Should the Spartans pull the upset, I would expect a lot of national writers to start taking notice of Michigan State being a legit good team. Hopefully, that happens and we can all laugh at this ranking come this time next week.”
USC just defeated a 3-0 Michigan State team which wasn’t as good as its record. The previous week, the Trojans beat a 2-0 Purdue Boilermakers team which also had a shiny record but wasn’t as good when placed on the field. Purdue lost to Notre Dame by 26 this past Saturday.
The Trojans are winning the games they are supposed to win regardless of the amount of respect they receive in victory. Against Illinois this coming weekend, USC might finally gain major national respect if it can pull off a win. As always, USC just has to take care of business and make sure it starts to improve as the season goes along.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC football defeated the worst unbeaten teams in the Big Ten
