Greg McElroy didn’t play at USC, and he didn’t even play in the Pac-12, where USC used to reside, or the Big Ten, where the Trojans now play.
He was a quarterback at Alabama, so McElroy is an SEC guy through and through. But he’s been a college football analyst for some time now at ESPN, and he also has an appreciation for success at the highest level of college football. McElroy experienced that at Alabama, leading the Crimson Tide to the national title in 2009. And USC has experienced plenty of that as a program, claiming 11 national titles in its glorious history.
But in Monday’s preseason AP Top 25 poll, USC wasn’t anywhere near the top of the charts. In fact, the Trojans weren’t even in the Top 25 itself, getting relegated to the “others receiving votes” section that goes to the programs who are considered good but not quite good enough. USC was 5th in that category with 64 votes, meaning the Trojans are considered the 30th-best team in the country going into the 2025 season.
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McElroy believes that’s more than a little ridiculous, and he wasn’t afraid to say it out loud on his Always College Football podcast on Tuesday. He said USC was “absolutely disrespected” by the AP voters.
“USC right now is in the others receiving votes. They are actually 5th. That’s the biggest difference between my top 25 and the AP Top 25, is that I have USC at 11 and the AP has them at 30. That’s a 19-spot gap,” said McElroy, who hailed USC’s offensive weapons, saying they have arguably the best weapons in the Big Ten other than Ohio State.
He also believes that USC will be much improved defensively, saying the Trojans should make “huge strides” on defense.
Here is the full clip of McElroy’s rant on USC’s preseason ranking:
Time will tell if the AP voters did get it right on USC or if McElroy’s analysis in the middle of August was actually the proper take on the Trojans.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
