New CFP format could help USC, but can Trojans take advantage?
New CFP format could help USC, but can Trojans take advantage? It's time for USC football to re-establish itself as a playoff-contending program, on par with 2022
This week, the College Football Playoff announced a change to its format for 2025. This year, there will be no more automatic byes given to conference champions, and teams will instead simply be seeded 1-12 in order of their playoff ranking.
How will this change affect USC? If the the Trojans are one of the final at-large teams in this year's field, it could help them. Rather than slotting in as the No. 11 or 12 seed, USC could potentially move up a few spots in front of the automatic qualifiers from lesser conferences.
In addition, the new format could help USC in the event that the Trojans make it to the Big Ten Championship Game, but lose. Under last year's format, in that scenario, USC could have been no higher than the No. 5 seed, and ineligible for a first-round bye. In the new format, however, a team that loses its conference title game could still get a bye if it is one of the top four teams in the CFP rankings.
Of course, this will only help the Trojans if they are able to actually make the playoff, something that they have yet to do in its 11 seasons of existence. While the new format could potentially help USC, Lincoln Riley and Company's focus should be on improving upon last season's 7-6 fiasco first and foremost.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
Iowa Hawkeyes creeping up in College Football Playoff sleeper team picks
Iowa Hawkeyes creeping up in College Football Playoff sleeper team picks Since its inception in 2014, the College Football Playoff has opened the door for many more teams to have a chance at a national championship. Once you get into the field, fans have learned that anything can happen. With the field now expanded to 12 teams, there is more hope to be spread around among college football fan bases. One team and fan base that has been knocking at the door but not yet entered the College Football Playoff party is the Iowa Hawkeyes. A perennial winning program, Iowa has been on the cusp of making an appearance multiple times, only to fall one game short. With a new quarterback in Mark Gronowski, who many view as a large upgrade for Iowa, and a roster constructed to blow by their projected win totals, could 2025 be the season Iowa kicks down the door and enters the College Football Playoff? On3's college football reporter Ari Wasserman believes that could be the case. He has the Iowa Hawkeyes included among his Big Ten and SEC teams that could make noise in the 2025 College Football Playoff. Iowa When you think about Iowa football, you think about laughably bad offense and great defense. It seems to be the same there every single year. But guess what? Iowa brought in quarterback Mark Gronowski from South Dakota State. If you haven't watched his tape, do it. The Hawkeyes have a chance at a semi-explosive offense with a healthy Gronowski at the helm. It's a borderline lock that the Hawkeyes will have an elite defense. Dare to dream. - Wasserman, On3 With a defense that is always steady under defensive coordinator Phil Parker, Iowa has a puncher's chance with a competent offense that shows a pulse. If they can get life from the offense, they become a very dangerous team that could take down a title contender to punch their own ticket to the postseason. Other Big Ten teams pegged as sleepers by Wasserman include the Illinois Fighting Illini who are ascending rapidly under head coach Bret Bielema who is paired with elite QB Luke Altmyer, the Nebraska Cornhuskers who are looking to continue their growth under head coach Matt Rhule, and the Washington Huskies, a newer team in the Big Ten looking to make a big splash. Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes and opinions. Follow Riley on X: @rileydonald7
Los Angeles Times
4 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Tennis great Stan Smith on life lessons, Arthur Ashe's legacy and his namesake shoes
Fancy footwork won him Wimbledon. Simple footwear won him everything since. 'The shoe has had a life of its own,' said Stan Smith, 78, whose eponymous Adidas kicks, with their timeless lines and leather uppers, are the king of all tennis sneakers with more than 100 million sold. 'People from all walks of life have embraced them.' Not surprisingly, Smith has a head for business to match his feet for tennis. With that in mind, he and longtime business partner Gary Niebur wrote the just-released 'Winning Trust: How to Create Moments that Matter,' aimed at helping businesses develop stronger relationships with their clients, with tips that readers can apply to their personal relationships and to sports. 'The book is about developing relationships that can elevate the element of trust, which is a depreciating asset in today's world,' Smith said this week in a call from the French Open. When it comes to building and maintaining high-stakes relationships, Smith and Niebur have distilled their process into five key elements they call SERVE, a recurring theme throughout the book. That's an acronym for Strategize, Engage, Recreate, Volley and Elevate. For instance, recreate — as in recreation — means to build bonds through fun shared experiences, and volley means to trade ideas back and forth to find solutions. 'When people realize that you care more about the relationship than the transaction,' Niebur said, 'trust follows.' A onetime standout at Pasadena High and USC, Smith was a close friend of the late Arthur Ashe, the UCLA legend whose name graces the main stadium court at Flushing Meadows, N.Y., home of the U.S. Open. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Ashe's victory at Wimbledon, when he beat the heavily favored Jimmy Connors in the 1975 final. Ashe remains the only Black man to win the singles title at that storied tournament. 'Arthur was a good friend,' Smith said. 'He made a huge impact, and much more of an impact in the last few years of his life when he was fighting AIDS and the heart fund, and obviously for equal rights.' Ashe, who contracted HIV from a blood transfusion he received during heart-bypass surgery, died in 1993. Although he was four years older than Smith, the two developed a close friendship when they traveled the globe as Davis Cup teammates and rising professionals. Smith has vivid memories of traveling with him, Ashe in his 'Citizen of the World' T-shirt with his nose forever buried in a newspaper or magazine. Smith was ranked No. 1 in the U.S. at the time, two spots ahead of his pal, yet the wildly popular Ashe always got top billing. 'When we went to Africa, I was the other guy who played against him in all these exhibitions,' Smith told The Times in 2018. 'They would introduce him as Arthur Ashe, No. 1 player in the U.S., No. 1 in the world, one of the greatest players to ever play the game … and Stan Smith, his opponent.' Smith laughs about that now, but it used to chafe him. Finally, he raised the issue with his buddy. Recalled Smith in that 2018 interview: 'Arthur came up to me and said, 'I'm sorry about that. If we do a tour of Alabama, I'll carry your rackets for you.' He was in tune with everything. 'Arthur was a quiet leader walking a tightrope between a traditionally white sport and the black community.' Smith will be at Wimbledon next month, where his UCLA friend will be honored. As for his shoes, they're everywhere, and have been since the 1970s. Adidas originally developed the shoe for French player Robert Haillet in the mid-1960s, and the sneakers were known as the 'Haillet.' In 1972, the company switched to Smith, naming the shoes in his honor and printing a tiny picture of his mustachioed face on them. There were subtle changes to the Haillet, including a notch in the tongue for laces to pass through and a heel better shaped to protect the Achilles tendon. They sold like crazy. In 1988, Stan Smiths made the 'Guinness Book of World Records' for the most pairs sold at 22 million. Yet that was only the beginning as sales surged with the release of the Stan Smith II and retro Stan Smith 80s. The most common ones were solid white with touch of green on the back. 'Hugh Grant turned around last year in the [Wimbledon] royal box and said, `First girl I ever kissed, I was wearing your shoes,'' Smith told The Times in 2022. 'Another guy said he met this girl when he was wearing my shoes. It was so meaningful that they both wore the shoes for their wedding seven years later. 'It started off as a tennis shoe. Now it's a fashion shoe.' Smith's personal collection has climbed to more than 100 size 13s in all sorts of colors, including his favorite pair in cardinal and black, an homage to his USC roots. In 2022, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Smith's Wimbledon singles title, Adidas gave all of its sponsored players a pair of shoes with SW19 on the tongue — Wimbledon's postcode — with the date of that match against Ilie Nastase inside the right shoe and the score of the match inside the left. At Wimbledon this year, the spotlight swings to the other side of Los Angeles, to an unforgettable Bruin, a sports hero who impacted so many lives. For Smith, his friendship with Ashe was an early example in his career of a relationship forged with trust. The book, incidentally, is affixed with a unique and fitting page marker. A shoelace.
Indianapolis Star
11 hours ago
- Indianapolis Star
Center Grove gets off to hot start, buries Brownsburg for baseball regional title
Center Grove scored six runs in the first inning and never looked back, earning a 14-3 win over Brownsburg in the Class 4A regional championship game Saturday. The win clinches Center Grove's second regional title in the past three years. The Trojans advance to face Franklin next Saturday in the semistate semifinals. "The offense came out firing today," Center Grove starting pitcher Gannon Grant said. "I felt really comfortable. All I had to do was throw strikes and let my defense work." IHSAA baseball regionals: Statewide pairings, schedule, scores Elsewhere: North Central outlasts Greenfield-Central ace, wins first regional title since 1994 Grant allowed three runs over six innings, striking out six and walking one. Brownsburg did a great job getting hard contact on Grant, but the Trojans' defense made plays on the ball, limiting the damage. Colin McNeer and Ty Jarvis each had an RBI. Cayon Koonce had two hits and two runs scored. Carson Bush, Tristan Yerman and Hudson Stewart all drove in runs in the first inning. Bulldogs' reliever Ryan Murphy held the Trojans in check until the six innings when Center Grove scored four more runs. The Trojans added four runs in the seven as well. Yerman led Center four with four hits and seven RBIs. Gannon Grant had three hits and one run scored. Andrew Krupa had four hits and three RBIs. "That is a fabulous offensive team, so for us to come out and put six (runs) on them, maybe tighten them up a little bit, it was awesome," Center Grove coach Keith Hatfield said. "It really set the tone. Maybe we relaxed a little bit for a few innings, but when you build that kind of a lead it gives you a little leeway to not play well."
