USC's playoff hopes ultimately came down to Illinois loss, not Oregon

On Saturday, the USC football team fell 42-27 to Oregon in Eugene. The loss was the Trojans' third of the 2025 season, and, in addition to officially knocking them out of the Big Ten championship race, eliminated any hope that USC had of making its first College Football Playoff appearance.

The Trojans went into the game knowing that they needed a victory in Eugene in order to remain in playoff contention. However, the odds of them winning a game in Autzen were never great, so it was hard to take the "USC playoff contender" talk too seriously.

Ultimately, the main reason that USC will not make the CFP is not because of Saturday's game. Rather, the Trojans will look back on their September loss to Illinois as a massive missed opportunity.

Of USC's three losses, two on the road against top ten opponents. While it certainly would have been amazing to see the Trojans knock off Notre Dame and/or Oregon, realistically, winning either of those games was always going to be a long shot.

Illinois, on the other hand, is 7-4, and almost certainly will not be ranked in this week's playoff rankings. On Saturday night, the Illini suffered an embarrassing loss, falling by three scores to a hapless Wisconsin team.

Illinois was a very winnable game for USC. Heck, the Trojans led the game in the final minute. If USC, simply could have held on, it could have afforded to drop both the Oregon and Notre Dame games and still had a good shot to make the field. Because they lost, however, the Trojans team left themselves, no room for error, and in the unenviable position of needing to beat a top ten team on the road.

When we look back on USC's 2025 season, it will be the Illinois loss that stings the most. Sure, the Trojans have significantly improved from last season. And yes, they in all likelihood would not have done much of anything in the playoff anyway.

But still, not winning that game feels like a massive missed opportunity. Instead of potentially having an opportunity to play on the sport's biggest stage, the Trojans will head into this week's regular season finale against UCLA playing purely for pride (and the Victory Bell, obviously). Given how there are no certainties about the future in his sport, that is going to hurt for a while.

This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC football playoff hopes were gashed by September loss to Illinois