The USC Trojans will open the 2026 season in Week Zero against the San Jose State Spartans, the school announced Wednesday.
USC will host San Jose State at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, Calif., on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026. The game will mark only the seventh meeting between the two California schools on the gridiron.
USC and San Jose State first met in 1995 and played most recently in Week Zero of the 2023 season. All six previous contests were played in Los Angeles, and the Trojans currently own a 6-0 advantage in the series.
In other non-conference action in 2026, USC is slated to host the Fresno State Bulldogs on Sept. 5, followed by the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns on Sept. 12.
USC’s complete Big Ten football schedule for 2026 was revealed last month. The Trojans will host Maryland, Ohio State, Oregon, and Washington and will visit Indiana, Penn State, Rutgers, UCLA, and Wisconsin.
Below is USC’s complete schedule for the 2026 season, plus a link to its schedule page which will be updated with kickoff times and TV as they are announced:
08/29 – San Jose State
09/05 – Fresno State
09/12 – Louisiana
09/19 – at Rutgers*
09/26 – Oregon*
10/03 – Washington*
10/10 – at Penn State*
10/17 – OFF
10/24 – at Wisconsin*
10/31 – Ohio State*
11/07 – OFF
11/14 – at Indiana*
11/21 – Maryland*
11/28 – at UCLA*
* Big Ten contest.
San Jose State is a fantastic choice for USC 12th opponent A-Men.
Does this mean SJSU is going to be playing 13 games, thanks to playing Hawaii?
Yes
I assume other teams can play 13 games that play @ Hawaii?… if they want…?
Kinda weird they are going with 13 games in 13 weeks. Desperate for money?
Since this game takes place during Week Zero, San Jose State will still get a bye week. Nine Saturdays in October and November with 8 conference games to schedule.
Woody: SJSU has 8 conference games in the last 9 weeks of the CFB regular season, so they will get a bye week somewhere.
My bad. I forgot this game is week zero. Yeah one bye week.
USC is taking on a pretty good OOC slate in 2026…….if there wasn’t a portal and NIL.
Right. These guys were insistent that the cessation of the Notre Dame rivalry was not about lightening up the schedule. Got it.
That was the matchup we were all kind of leaning to happening
It is a very boring non-conference slate. Wonder if including a more noteworthy opponent (like Notre Dame) would have made it a better fan experience?
USC gets UO and 2024 national champs OSU at home while playing PSU, defending national champs IU, and rival UCLA away.
That’s honestly both a more interesting and tougher schedule than when they were in the Pac12 and playing ND every year. How many times did USC play even one opponent (let alone 2) in the regular season who had won a natty in the past 2 years when they were in the Pac12 and played ND every year?
Cupcakes games will be the best that USC can play in 2026 & heaven only knows when another P4 OOC game that USC can play & scheduling will not be easy.
beautiful. should be a new rivalry SPARTANS VS TROJANS!!!
Sacramento State vs NDSU doubleheader incoming.
Woody they will have a bye week somewhere either after the non conference slate and before Mountain West play OR somewhere in the MW portion of their schedule
Yeah i had a brain fart
Halted the best rivalry in college football because Lincoln Riley is a coward. First it was too cold to play in South Bend in November, now it’s too tough a schedule to even have Notre Dame at all. For all their talent, Southern Cal has always been soft.
At least there will be plenty of UCLA-USC on Thanksgiving weekend plus I really want Notre Dame play various ACC opponents also on Thanksgiving weekend.
ND could have played Troy if they truly had honored what they said when they said “any time any where”.
The Domers said “no”.
big shout out to larry scott who couldnt secure a tv deal for a league with usc, oregon, washington, ucla and more teams with 100+ years of history. and now we have usc playing 2 mtn west teams and a sun belt team in non con. larry gets forgotten a lot in the convo about ppl who ruined cfb but he really did his best to destroy the sport too #neverforget
It’s all about money $$$$$$ & tradition is fading into quicksand.
Eh. Larry Scott worked for the Pac presidents, who were the ones who screwed it up. But fundamentally, it’s because even the top Pac schools are closer to the middle-of-the-pack of the B10/SEC in terms of TV viewership draws (or worse) which is why the Pac fell apart. As TV draws, USC, UO, UW, and UCLA are equivalent to Ole Miss, IU, Iowa, and Minnesota. If those schools headlined a conference, they wouldn’t be able to keep up with the B10 and SEC in revenues either.