USC football won’t play on Saturday, November 7. The Trojans will have the weekend off. Oregon-Ohio State is one huge Big Ten game on that Saturday. The other headliner is Penn State at Washington in Seattle.
Most national college football fans will be focused on Oregon-Ohio State for reasons which don’t need to be explained. Penn State-Washington is intriguing because we really don’t know how big this game will actually be at the time the Nittany Lions and Huskies kick off in the Northwest.
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Here’s the main point to hammer home for USC: The Trojans, on November 7, will have Indiana left on their schedule plus (of course) UCLA and also Maryland. USC should handle UCLA and Maryland. Indiana will be the one really tough game remaining at that point in the season.
Imagine how different USC’s world will be if the Trojans have one loss on November 7 compared to two. If USC has two losses, a loss to Indiana would likely knock the Trojans out of College Football Playoff contention regardless of what happens in the Penn State-Washington game.
However, what if USC has only one loss on November 7? Then a loss to Indiana won’t knock USC out of the playoff picture. The Trojans would probably get in at 10-2 with wins over Maryland and UCLA.
The key point of intrigue is this: If USC does have only one loss on November 7, and if the Trojans eventually do finish 10-2, they will likely have wins over both Penn State and Washington. The natural question arises: Will USC need one team or the other to win this game to give the Trojans an extra nudge toward the playoff? If PSU and UW are both on the same footing, USC might be neutral here, but if one team has a better record and profile, USC might need that team to win in Seattle.
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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Big Ten season preview: Value of Penn State-Washington game is unclear
