USC Football moves up in CFP Top 25 after statement win at UCLA

USC Football has officially moved up to No. 6 in the CFP Top 25 rankings this week, after winning a thriller against the UCLA Bruins in the Rose Bowl this Saturday. SC is now 10-1, with multiple ranked wins at this point. They beat Oregon State, who moved up to No. 21 this week, and of course UCLA who only moved back two spots this week to No. 18.

The only five teams ahead of them (in order) are Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, TCU, and LSU. It is confusing as to how LSU is ahead of the Trojans when they have lost multiple games to other now-multiple loss teams (and one of them in blowout fashion), but the rankings are never going to be perfect at this stage of the season.

Who knows? Maybe there's another team behind USC that has a better eye test than the Trojans, so it could go both ways. The important thing is that SC moved up, and is at least correctly ranked somewhere in that top six. It's hard not to rank them in the top six. Their offense is better than even any of the teams in the top five ahead of them other than Ohio State.

The Trojans have scored 42.7 points per game. That's third in the country, and again, only one of the teams in the top five of the country have an offense scoring more than that (Ohio State at 46.5 points per game).

SC, however, is racking up a lot more total offense than Ohio State who is tied for eighth in the country at 492.7 total yards per game. SC is putting up 513 total yards per game, which is second in America. The only team higher than SC in total offense is Tennessee, who now has two losses.

USC Football's Defense has also done some big things as well for the Trojans.

USC Football is tied for third in the country with 25 turnovers forced this year. SC is also tied for 16th in the nation with 32 sacks. They're No. 1 nationally in interceptions (18), and tied for eighth in defensive touchdowns (three).

So, while they're giving up far too many points (26.45 per game), they're still making the big plays when they're needed. They're taking the ball away and wreaking havoc on offensive lines. This is the formula to being a top six team.

And remember--the one loss SC has is a one-point loss to a Utah team that's still a top 14 team in the country despite their loss this week. SC's game against them was also lost due to multiple egregious roughing the passer penalties on USC that were even admitted to being incorrect by the conference.

The game being on the road helps SC's resume too. Similarly to how both USC's ranked wins were on the road as well. If SC wins out, they likely go to the College Football Playoff. That's because it's also likely for one (or both) of these two outcomes to happen: Georgia wins out, and TCU loses one game.

As long as one of those two things happens, and USC gets third and fourth ranked wins in these next two weeks (Notre Dame this week and the PAC-12 Championship Game), it will be hard for the committee to keep SC out of the College Football Playoff. Especially with the PAC-12 being the most represented conference in the country for the Top 25, as they have the most ranked teams with six.