Breaking down USC's newly-released 2023 football schedule

The good news is that USC has two byes on its 2023 football schedule. The bad news is that the Trojans have to play nine straight games to get to the second one.

The Trojans' schedule was released Wednesday, with USC opening the season in Week 0 (a week earlier than most teams) against San Jose State on Aug. 26 and receiving byes in Week 3 and the week before the Pac-12 championship game.

Many fans immediately went into conspiracy mode to presume the Pac-12 was sticking it to the Trojans in their final season in the conference, making them play nine straight weeks against league foes and rival Notre Dame.

That is not the case, per what TrojanSports.com has learned.

The alternating years in which USC plays Notre Dame on the road, in October as opposed to near the end of the season when the game is in Los Angeles, has always provided a scheduling challenge. Because Stanford also plays Notre Dame each year, the Trojans and Cardinal play their conference game early (Week 2 again this year) and then match up non-conference weeks late in the season to keep the Pac-12 slate balanced with the other 10 teams playing each other that week.

For instance, when USC closed the regular season against Notre Dame this year, Stanford played BYU that same week.

USC was supposed to play BYU on Nov. 25 as its regular-season finale this year -- as Stanford hosts Notre Dame that week -- but the Cougars backed out of that game last year to accommodate their move to the Big 12. Scheduling an independent program, which BYU was until joining the Big 12 this year, provided the unique flexibility of filling a late season slot on the schedule while most other teams are all locked into conference play at that point.

Without BYU, USC needed to find a new 12th game late in the scheduling process, and it had limited options -- fill the Week 13 slot if at all possible (requiring a team not locked into conference games at that point) and play 10 straight games leading right into Pac-12 championship week, fill its open Week 3 slot and play 12 straight games before the Week 13 bye or request NCAA permission to start the season in Week 0, leaving Week 3 and Week 13 as byes.

In 2017, for reference, the Trojans were in a similar bind for similar reasons and did end up playing 12 straight games before the Week 13 bye ahead of the Pac-12 title game (which they won against Stanford).

It is our understanding the Pac-12 tried to work with USC on a compatible adjustment, but it was not possible.

There is also the reality that the Trojans might benefit from that Week 13 bye returning Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams, coming off an 11-win season and among the top favorites to make it back to the Pac-12 title game.

With all of that said, here is the 2023 USC football schedule:

Game times and television plans for USC's 2023 games will be announced at a later date. All games will be nationally televised by either the ESPN channels, ABC, FOX, FOX Sports 1 or Pac-12 Networks.

USC season ticket renewals for the 2023 season begin today (Jan. 18). All 2022 season ticket holders will receive an e-mail to their address on file about renewing their tickets. Season ticket deposits are being taken now here. The deadline to renew tickets is March 3.

The Trojans play five teams who finished in the top 25 of the final AP poll in 2022 -- No. 8 Washington, No. 10 Utah, No. 15 Oregon, No. 18 Notre Dame and No. 21 UCLA.

USC, which finished No. 11 in that poll, had the benefit in 2022 of not playing Washington or Oregon -- two of the top four teams in the conference. That changes this year, as the Trojans get them back-to-back right about the time the toll of playing nine straight games will be setting in -- home against Washington on Nov. 4 and at Oregon on Nov. 11.

USC hasn't played Washington since a 2019 trip to Seattle and last played the Ducks, of course, in the Pac-12 championship game of the condensed 2020 pandemic season. USC has not played in Eugene, Ore., since 2015.

Overall, five of the Trojans' toughest games come in a six-week span (with a road trip to Cal in the middle of it) -- Oct. 14 at Notre Dame, Oct. 21 vs. Utah, the aforementioned Washington and Oregon games and Nov. 18 vs. UCLA.

As for the other non-conference opponents, San Jose State is coming off a 7-5 season and Nevada was 2-10 this past fall.