Does USC's poor opening game attendance mean Lincoln Riley's on the hot seat already?

The 2026 college football season is officially underway, and with it returns one of the greatest sporting traditions: criticizing crowd sizes and attendance.

This season, the culprit was USC, as the Trojans opened their 2026 season at home against San Jose State. Because college football scheduling is no longer based on what makes sense given a location, local time zones, time of year, or weather, NBC picked the 12pm Pacific Time window for kickoff.

That's always a tough time for Southern California locals...