USC football finishes unranked in AP Poll for second year in a row
The final AP Poll was released Tuesday following Ohio State’s victory in the National Championship Game over Notre Dame on Monday night. And for the second season in a row, the USC Trojans were not ranked in the final poll of the year.
USC opened the year ranked No. 23 in the AP Poll and jumped all the way to No. 13 following a season-opening win over the LSU Tigers. The Trojans moved to No. 11 following a home win against Utah State, then bounced down to No. 13 with the loss to Michigan and back up to No. 11 after beating Wisconsin at home.
But the Trojans dropped out of the AP Poll completely when they took their No. 11 ranking to Minneapolis and lost to the unranked Minnesota Golden Gophers. A win against Texas A&M in the Holiday Bowl wasn’t enough to get USC back into the poll.
Last season, USC dropped out of the Week 11 poll following a home loss to Washington and never returned.
USC played just two teams that finished in the AP Poll top 25, though both finished in the top five with Notre Dame at No. 2 and Penn State at No. 5.
The Trojans played three teams that finished among “others receiving votes,” losing to Michigan but beating both LSU and Texas A&M.
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The Big Ten finished with three top-five teams in No. 1 Ohio State, No. 3 Oregon and No. 5 Penn State. Indiana finished No. 10 and Illinois was No. 16. The Trojans will travel to play both the Ducks and Illini in 2025.
This is the first time since the 2018 and 2019 seasons that USC has finished unranked in the AP Poll in back-to-back seasons. Before that, it hadn’t happened since the 1999 and 2000 seasons.
Complete 2024 final AP Poll
No. 1 Ohio State
No. 2 Notre Dame
No. 3 Oregon
No. 4 Texas
No. 5 Penn State
No. 6 Georgia
No. 7 Arizona State
No. 8 Boise State
No. 9 Tennessee
No. 10 Indiana
No. 11 Ole Miss
No. 12 SMU
No. 13 BYU
No. 14 Clemson
No. 15 Iowa State
No. 16 Illinois
No. 17 Alabama
No. 18 Miami
No. 19 South Carolina
No. 20 Syracuse
No. 21 Army
No. 22 Missouri
No. 23 UNLV
No. 24 Memphis
No. 25 Colorado
Others receiving votes:
Navy 55, LSU 39, Louisville 38, Michigan 36, Kansas State 11, Marshall 8, Ohio 8, Florida 7, TCU 2, Texas A&M 1
