USC football needs to make the 2026 College Football Playoff for all the obvious reasons. The Trojans need to make their first playoff and get rid of a humiliating run of futility. Lincoln Riley needs to justify his salary and the resources devoted to the program. USC needs to get out of Oregon's shadow in the Dan Lanning era. The Trojans need to reestablish themselves as the West's foremost program. USC fans deserve better. On and on the list goes. However, as College Sports Wire notes, there's an underappreciated reason the Trojans really need to get it done this year and not a moment later:
"The hot topic surrounding college sports is postseason expansion, but former Tennessee football head coach Phillip Fulmer doesn't want to hear about it in his sport. USA TODAY's Knoxville News Sentinel caught up with the former Volunteers coach before his annual golf classic, and it's fair to say Fulmer is opposed to any change involving the CFP.
“'I don’t know what they’re going to do. (SEC) commissioner (Greg) Sankey is pretty dead set on sticking with 16 teams (in an anticipated expansion). I think that's a good number,' Fulmer said, 'But if you go to 24, you might as well let everybody in because you’re almost taking the whole top 25. I wouldn’t like that.'”
USC football needs to make the 2026 CFP because if the Trojans don't get in this year and the field expands to 24 in 2027, the Trojans will miss their window. If they don't make a 12-team field but get in with a 24-team field, everyone will say the expansion is the only reason USC got in.
The Trojans don't want to have that scenario hanging on their shoulders. It's time to get it done now and avoid this burdensome possibility. It's time for USC to act like a big-boy program for once.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC football must make 2026 CFP for reasons you might not realize
