FOOTBALL

USC Morning Buzz: Here’s One Drawback In Competing Against SEC

This is a popular time for people to discuss NIL and people frequently bring up the argument that USC needs to do better.

But here’s the biggest problem: It’s not that USC doesn’t raise enough money. It’s that USC fans don’t contribute enough money.

Talk to anyone in the athletic dept. and they’ll tell you that USC fans do not come close to SEC fans with NIL donations.

Now if you want to say USC needs more big donors to contribute that’s a fair argument. But it’s never going to compete with the SEC schools in rank-and-file donations. The SEC fans are crazy and never stop thinking about winning.

USC fans just don’t have that intensity.

It all revolves around football, of course.

But if you look at college baseball, it shows where the SEC is flexing its muscle. Nine of the past 14 College World Series champs are from the SEC.

Over the weekend, Texas A&M hired Washington’s head coach . . . to be the Aggies’ pitching coach. The money being paid to SEC baseball coaches, including assistants, is crazy.

Their fans want to win and donate. It’s a little different when USC solicits donations. And the athletic dept. often feels pressure trying to get more donations from its fans, especially after a season like last year.

31 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: Here’s One Drawback In Competing Against SEC”

  1. Any specific dollar amounts raised by the SEC giants such as Alabama, LSC, Texas, ect versus the amounts raised by USC? There seems to be very little information on how much House of Victory has raised versus other programs. Do the donors have any say over who receives the payola and/or NIL money? I don’t think so. It is up to Riley.

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  2. Donation wise SC will never be in the same ballpark as SEC fans because, well, Trojans don’t have the same passion as those Down South folks. It may have something to do with in L.A. there are a lot of teams to root for whereas in “smalltowns” Georgia and Alabama there is only one show in town

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  3. Money no doubt is ‘king’ in these top kids’ decision of which school to go to but having a chance at the real money in the NFL is a driving force, and Alabama, Ohio St et al churn out a lot of NFLers

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  4. After the largely dismal 1980s and 1990s of SC football I thought SC would never see another John McKay type era, but along came ‘Carrot’ with still another incredible Trojan run. Maybe we are only ‘entitled’ to 2 such runs in a lifetime

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    1. I graduated from USC in 1983 and I have spent my whole life around USC with 26 family members graduating. It is not the University of Southern California anymore as USC has lost its soul. There have always been international students at USC, but that is now what it has mostly become. These kids graduate and go home with their degrees and give nothing back unlike the USC Alums in Southern California. The financial support base has shrunk dramatically. Then Pat Haden became AD and completely bent over to the NCAA and got USC decapitated and we suffered for years. Then he made another major blunder by hiring Clay Helton and we all know how that played. The hiring of Carol Folt as President was the knock out punch. She has zero appreciation for the tradition and history of USC…especially as she eliminated all the local Trojan Clubs which was always essential to all the Alums over the many years. USC has made it impossible to park and tailgate at the football games like the old days. It is not an enjoyable experience to go the games especially the 7:30 night games. Then Lincoln Riley is hired and he reaches out in no way to the alumni base unlike Pete Carrol. Is it any wonder why they can’t raise more money? It is not the school it once was and getting worse by the day as evidenced by the recent graduation fiasco. I could go on and on, but FIGHT ON.

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      1. Spot on USC grad. So how do you fix it. It starts with a new vision of the university that incorporates the old traditions. I don’t want to be known as the “globalist” university with its international students and WEF agenda. Get rid of Folt and the Leftist professors. Bring in a new Board of Trustees. Start admitting some local students, particularly legacies such as yourself. Ditch the 5,000 international students from Asia. It won’t be easy to implement this new vision. The million dollar donors need to demand that it happen. Money talks.

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  6. The “elimination of all the local Trojan Clubs” was the knockout punch because nothing raises the SC spirit like being in an SC club talking about the team, and ‘Without-a-Folt’ was behind this ‘killing off’ which begs the question, “Why? To what end?

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    1. Why? Because Folt has a globalist vision for the university which is at odds with Trojan alumni clubs who love the old traditions. It is about control. The clubs need to grow weaker so the globalist voice can go stronger. Folt’s vision is to have USC reflect the same values as places like Columbia, Yale, and Brown. She is probably to the left of U.C. Berkeley.

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      1. Conservatives are getting left in the dust and obviously, it chaps your a$$

        HAHAHA!

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  7. This final ‘birthday’ salute to Wolf got buried in last segment’s graveyard at the end, but ‘Speaking of Wolf’s ‘flock’ it’s too bad, too bad for people who don’t participate and set themselves free lost in their thoughts, and here you are allowed to write whatever you want with every type of profanity allowed if you so choose because at Wolf’s you’re so free that ‘anything goes’

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    1. I believe the readership declined because it became difficult to find the posts about sports/USC.

      Interesting stat from Rivals – USC is ranked 21st in recruiting for 2025 football. The average quality (stars) per recruit is very high, but the number of recruits is very low (only 12). So the Trojans are either going to need to flip some recruits, or rely heavily on the portal again.

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      1. Right 67. And if we win 10 games, show that the defense is being coached up, and get the NIL competitive, we will likely flip some big name recruits. All we really need is a couple of elite interior defensive lineman and a few offensive lineman. We can get the skill guys.

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      2. …we need one more thing, Plow: the 2024 team has to play over its head….just the way the 2016 team did after the Utah game…..

        #..The2024TeamHasAChanceToGetUSCBackOnTrack

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      3. ’67, much of the abandonment is due to the sick videos.

        But a good chunk is because LA loves a winner. Until Riley gets us an NC, or at least close to it, interest & enthusiasm will remain low. When & if it does happen, everyone will jump back on the bandwagon!

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      4. says the guy who watched the “sick” videos over and over and over…..some freaky fetish you have…….no wonder why you like to spend a lot of time in your man cave….aka the outhou$e.

        you don’t even watch the games, so what are you crying about

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  9. It seems the foundation of a college football team is its recruitment of high school kids, and the portal should only be used to fill in a weak spot or two on the team

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  10. SC recruitment is like some flailing, floundering amateur in a professional marketplace bucking up against already seasoned pros manipulating the NIL “system” which leads to more wins

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    1. If the recruiting competition comes down to strictly payola/NIL then we likely lose the player to others that are willing to pay more. (Oregon, Texas A&M) But if the player is considering the whole package – football tradition, coaching and development, academics, lifestyle in LA, alumni connections and support, and life after football, we have a good chance of winning. Riley has hinted at this in interviews about recruiting. He says things like “the guys that you really have to stretch to get them to come to your school are probably the ones that you ultimately don’t want in your program.” If these guys have a set back such as not starting as a Freshman or Sophomore they are gone to the portal. On the other hand, if they have an exceptional year, they are looking to be paid more than any other player at their position in college football or they are gone to the portal. Discipline them for not meeting the academic or training standards and their gone. Can’t win playing that game.

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      1. Granted the NIL money is a factor. However, USC’s recruiting strategy is simple as Pete Carroll said at an Orange County recruiting fund raiser that I went to. He said you lock down the best California talent and go out of state to get first round draft picks like Brian Cushing. LR needs to rebuild the relationships with Mater Dei, Bosco, Long Beach Poly, etc… Spending time recruiting kids in the south for example is a waste of time. I knew when the Georgia kids committed that it would never stick and it didn’t as they decommitted recently. To get kids to commit out of state and have it stick, USC needs to be a brand like under John Robinson and Pete Carroll when you could get the Browner brothers, August Curley, Mike Williams, Keith Rivers, Kyle Moore, etc… Until they reestablish themselves and dominate California recruiting they will never be the “brand” to get the best out of state talent. I thought LR would be a great recruiter and he is so average.

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      2. Multiply everything USCGrad83 said by 2 factors: Alex Grinch and Donte Williams…

        #…WeCouldaBeen10-2WithoutThem…..

        #..AndRecruitingWouldBeAWhole’NotherBagRightNow

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  11. What are there, 10,000 major college footballers with about 2500 each year becoming NFL draft eligible, and the NFL’s 32 teams will draft and pay maybe 100 players out of this 2500-pool which is 4%.

    No wonder the vast majority are pressing for the money now while in college although with these long-shot odds of seeing any future money in the pros, maybe getting a solid education is not a bad idea for their futures

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  12. Today a ‘generation’ is considered to last about 16-17 years, so it has been about a generation since Carrot left in 2009 and SC has not maintained Carrot’s football brand that was created, and in fact the Trojan football reputation is probably pretty dismal if it even has one with most kids today

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  13. Still, unlike the SC basketball team that at one point didn’t have enough players to play a game, Trojan football has plenty of players available to play and this team has some talent, just not at every position

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    1. With today’s SCOTUS ruling, it’s more important than ever that someone blows trump’s head off. ……..

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  14. Like many I don’t much like either Bitin or Stump but I dont wish them harm and I am thankful for the comedy fodder they both provide

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  16. Stump: I just knew riding Stormy would work out for me one day

    Bitin: Seems to be so with your bump in the polls

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