Finally! USC receive earned recognition following Week 3 performance

Better late than never, but yes, USC is now ranked. Released on Sunday, the Trojans come in at 25 in the AP's Top 25 poll. Despite having three convincing wins and showing that the line play in particular is improved, it has taken a while for the media members to catch up in terms of the state of the current program under coach Lincoln Riley.

To be frank, some of the inclusions to this point from the media members have been completely puzzling. The usual bias and narrow perception of a sport that has a true national landscape is seemingly only becoming more and more segmented and fractured in terms of how those who are supposed to be providing evaluations.

The way, however, in which USC has been able to create early leads against Missouri State, Georgia Southern, and Purdue is becoming too difficult to ignore, even for those who regularly choose to blindly ignore the on-field accomplishments of the Trojans.

With Michigan State next in line, another big performance would have to see USC take a significant jump in the rankings. More to the point, though, when considering the teams that are on the rest of the schedule following the Spartans, as long as the Trojans continue to compile wins, the team will be in a more than good position to be in the playoff discussions.

Uneven criteria for USC

For some, however, the strength of schedule has not been good enough to warrant being ranked. The same argument can be made for those above USC on the list and for schools that had already been ranked even before the events of Week 3. Selectively deciding when to take SoS into account and when not to only adds to the disproportionate evaluations that continue to take place in college football.

Fortunately for USC, winning and doing so in an impressive way is going to be able to largely make the biased perceptions matter less and less.