Jayden Maiava and Josh Hoover face off as USC visits defending national champion Indiana

There has been some news about College Football recently about the idea that they are expanding to 24 teams in the College Football Playoffs. That won’t happen this year, but it will next season. If that were the case, it is likely that both of these teams would be part of that. There are a lot of people complaining because it likely will take away Conference Tournaments. Personally, I like the expansion. Before we get there, let’s take a look at today’s game between USC and Indiana.

USC is 7-2 for the season, and they are 20th in the nation coming into this afternoon’s game. The Trojans’ losses came against Oregon and Wisconsin this season. The Oregon loss is probably the most frustrating because they were at home, and the Ducks haven’t been consistently good this season. The loss on the road against Wisconsin was a bit confusing as well. The Trojans should’ve been plenty good to beat the Badgers, but they couldn’t get anything going on the ground to open things up. Their leading rusher in the game had 28 yards on the ground.

USC Trojan football fans cheer for their team at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Sept. 20, 2025, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Getty Images)

You can’t really blame the running game completely; I think we all know the Trojans will only go as far as quarterback Jayden Maiava will take them. He has completed about 67% of passes this year and thrown for 20 touchdowns. He only has five interceptions this season, so he has put together a good year. He had two interceptions against Wisconsin, which clearly didn’t help the USC cause. He also somehow had -57 rushing yards in the Wisconsin game.

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Indiana is the defending National Champion, but the team that won last year is significantly different from this season’s team. Fernando Mendoza is obviously gone, and the team was going to have to adjust to him leaving for the NFL. They don’t have a bad quarterback – Josh Hoover – under center, it just is that he isn’t quite as elite as Mendoza. Hoover has fewer than 2,000 yards this season, but he does have 19 touchdown passes. Perhaps the best part is that he is taking care of the ball, throwing just two interceptions this season.

Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Josh Hoover drops back to pass during the second quarter of a college football game against the North Texas Mean Green on Sept. 5, 2026, at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Ind. (Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The Hoosiers haven’t looked very good lately, either. Perhaps they are playing better competition than before, but they’ve had four consecutive close games. They won by just three against Nebraska. Then they lost by four to Ohio State, though they probably could’ve won that game if they could’ve stayed in bounds. Then they had to go into overtime to beat Michigan. The following week, they again needed overtime in order to beat Minnesota. Four straight weeks of close games, but the team went 3-1.

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Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti watches during warm ups before the College Football Playoff national championship game between Miami and Indiana, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, in Miami Gardens, Florida. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

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This could be a great game between the two teams, and I find it very hard to trust Indiana right now. Both teams are coming off of bye weeks, so they have had plenty of time to prepare for this game. I think Indiana has the better defense, and I do think they likely took this time to get their team refocused. I’m going to take the Hoosiers here, but I’m going to play them at just -7 instead of them at -7.5.

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