If there was a Sweet 16 in college football, USC wouldn’t be in it

Historically, of course, USC football is a top 16. More than that, USC is easily a top 10 program and quite possibly a top five, probably top eight program. However, the overall historical record is different from that of the present moment. Lincoln Riley didn’t create an elite program. With the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament being the main college sports news this week, we have to admit: If there was a Sweet 16 in college football, USC wouldn’t be in it.

Indiana

Historically, Indiana is one of the worst programs of all time, but right now, Indiana is very clearly the best program in college football under Curt Cignetti.

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Oregon

USC is historically much better than Oregon, but cannot be considered superior to Oregon over the last five, ten, or sixteen years. This is not a controversial view. Over the last 25 years, one could argue that USC is better than Oregon because of national championships, but certainly not so since 2010.

Washington

USC is – again – clearly much better than Washington on an all-time basis, but Washington has been to the playoffs and a national title game in separate seasons over the last 10 years. USC didn’t even make the playoffs.

Utah

The Utes have very little advantage in all-time accomplishments in college football, but they have been significantly better than USC over the last decade and a half, as has Oregon.

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Ohio State

This one requires no explanation.

Michigan

No debate on this one either.

State of Pennsylvania

It’s not a close call either.

BYU

Kalani Sitake clearly elevated BYU above USC.

Non-Big Ten and non-Western programs are better than USC right now

Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, Oklahoma, Miami, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Notre Dame and Texas Tech are all better than the Trojans and Lincoln Riley at the moment. We’ve listed 17 schools that are empirically better than USC in the present — not on a historical scale, but certainly in the context of the last two, five, 10 or 16 seasons. Given that USC has failed to make the College Football Playoff in the last 12 seasons, it is not controversial to say that USC is not a top 16 football program in the playoff era.

This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC football and Lincoln Riley are not in the top 16 at the moment.