What began with College Football Playoff aspirations for Lincoln Riley and USC has officially ended with a ticket to the Alamo Bowl. The Trojans started fast in 2025, but losses to Notre Dame and Illinois added costly wrinkles to Riley’s plans, and a 27–42 burn by Oregon finally smoked out their playoff hopes. With the CFP berth now out of reach, USC has shifted its focus to closing the year strong in bowl season.

And even with that disappointment lingering, USC’s overall body of work still held enough weight to keep them inside the national spotlight. Despite the late stumble, USC still finished No. 16 in the final CFP rankings, staying just outside the 12-team field thanks to statement wins over Michigan and Iowa that kept their résumé in the national conversation.

With the postseason picture finally settling, the Trojans didn’t have to wait long to learn where their December would take them. Bowl eligibility typically requires at least six wins, and at 9–3 USC is comfortably in. It’s now official: the Trojans will face TCU in the Valero Alamo Bowl on Dec. 30 at the Alamodome in San Antonio.

And once the dust settled on conference tie-ins, USC’s landing spot made perfect sense. Under the Alamo Bowl’s 2025 selection rules, the game gets first choice from two 12-team pools: one from the Big 12 and one made up of Pac-12 “legacy” programs like USC, Utah, and Arizona, which explains how the Trojans landed here despite now playing in the Big Ten.

For the Trojans, the Alamo Bowl nod isn’t just another December assignment; it adds to an already storied postseason track record.

This marks USC’s fourth consecutive bowl appearance. It also extends one of college football’s deepest postseason résumés: USC has 56 official bowl appearances and 36 wins, a total that trails only Alabama and sits level with Georgia among FBS programs. In the 2022 season, they lost the Cotton Bowl to Tulane Green Wave. The next year, they secured another berth against Louisville in the Holiday Bowl, which they went on to win.

But postseason résumés don’t exist in a vacuum, and Riley’s path to this year’s bowl berth has had its own twists.

Last season, Riley faced a lot of heat following a lackluster season. But six wins equals bowl eligibility. After facing a loss to Notre Dame in the regular-season finale, the Trojans headed to the Las Vegas Bowl, beating Texas A&M, 35-31. That wild comeback from a 24–7 hole didn’t just save the night in Vegas; it softened the noise around Riley after a 6–6 regular season and reminded everyone that his teams can still light up a postseason stage when the offense hits rhythm.

That momentum, even in a chaotic season, helped USC stabilize just enough to stay on the postseason map. As a result, they’ve secured another bowl appearance in the Alamo Bowl, even though the real target was a coveted playoff berth, which will have to wait for next season.

And with realignment reshaping bowl structures across the country, USC’s placement comes with a few technical quirks worth noting.

Given that framework, it wasn’t surprising that early projections already had USC penciled in for San Antonio. USC’s beat writer, Ryan Kartje, had predicted that USC would make a postseason appearance in the Alamo Bowl.

“Seems quite likely at this point, after last night’s win over UCLA, that USC will end its season at the Alamo Bowl. The Trojans have never played in the Alamo,” Ryan Kartje shared on Nov. 30.

Still, the bowl itself brings a layer of novelty for USC.

However, this is the first time USC will participate in the Alamo Bowl. Back in 2020, the Trojans had a chance to appear in the Alamo Bowl. But they declined to play owing to COVID-19. On the other hand, head coach Lincoln Riley already has some experience. In 2009, as an interim offensive coordinator for Texas Tech, he participated in the Alamo Bowl against Michigan State. The Red Raiders beat the Spartans, 41-31, producing 579 yards of offense. Meanwhile, the Horned Frogs hold a 2-0 record in the Alamo Bowl.

Matchup history adds even more intrigue to the pairing. Currently, TCU holds the edge over USC in terms of winning streaks. Holding a 2-3 record, the Trojans will be looking forward to balancing the scales. The last time they squared off against each other was in the 1998 Sun Bowl in El Paso.

That 28–19 TCU win is often cited as a turning point for the Horned Frogs’ modern rise, snapping a long bowl drought and kicking off a run of six straight postseason trips, which adds extra narrative juice to USC’s chance to even the all-time series in San Antonio.

All of that leads to one question: what does this game really mean for Riley’s program?

Can Riley beat TCU to reclaim a ten-win season?

Because beyond records and résumés, stylistically, this matchup might be one of the most explosive of bowl season. This isn’t just another mid-tier bowl in terms of style points, either. Both USC and TCU come in with top-10 passing attacks nationally, with the Trojans ranked seventh and the Horned Frogs eighth in yards through the air.

And on USC’s side, the identity remains the same: win games by letting Riley’s offense breathe. Lincoln Riley’s offense has seen improvement this season. With three losses, Lincoln Riley’s playoff dreams might have derailed, but a bowl appearance still weighs a lot on his resume. He entered the season with a $90 million buyout, but a 9–3 record has helped ease some of the pressure that comes with a contract that big.

Although QB Jayden Maiava’s missed throws create a glaring situation for the offense, the head coach remains committed to his starting quarterback. That philosophy has lived and died with his starting quarterback this season.

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Maiava has thrown for 3,431 yards to lead the Big Ten, with 23 touchdowns and 8 interceptions, and ESPN lists his Total QBR at 91.3. Working with star wideouts Makai Lemon and Ja’Kobi Lane, he’s driven USC to a top-10 passing offense nationally. His 66.2% completion rate and 9.2 yards per attempt put him among the country’s most efficient deep-ball passers, a big reason he’s sitting in the national top five for passing yardage heading into bowl season.

TCU brings an equally aggressive arm into San Antonio. TCU’s quarterback Josh Hoover has led the Horned Frogs to an 8–4 season, throwing for 3,472 yards with 29 touchdowns and 13 interceptions while completing 65.9 percent of his passes.

If they beat TCU on December 30, Riley will have achieved a 10-win season. Currently, the Trojans are ranked sixth in the nation in terms of highest bowl winning percentage among the 105 schools, with a record of 36-20 in bowl games to date.