Traditionally, when you think of NBC and college football, you think of Notre Dame.
The USC Trojans are apparently working to change that perception.
The Big Ten announced kickoff times and broadcast information for Week 9 games on Monday, with the big Saturday, Oct. 31, showdown between USC and the Ohio State Buckeyes set for 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
This is the first time the two teams will meet as Big Ten members and the first time the Buckeyes will play on NBC this season.
The Trojans have been NBC’s primetime team of choice since their Sept. 26 loss to the Oregon Ducks. They followed that with wins over Washington on Oct. 3 and Penn State on Oct. 10. They’ll travel to Wisconsin for their Oct. 24 primetime showdown, ahead of the OSU game.
As a reminder, under the arrangement among Big Ten media partners Fox, CBS, and NBC, the networks hold a draft each year with a predetermined number of selections to decide which Big Ten games they’d like to broadcast that season. Fox always gets the top three picks and five of the first 11, while CBS and NBC each get three of the top 11 and switch off at No. 4 each season.
Notable Oct. 31 TV selections:
Wisconsin-Iowa: Noon FOX
ND-Navy: Noon ABC/ESPN
ASU-Texas Tech: Noon ABC/ESPNFlorida-Georgia: 3:30 ABC
Minnesota-Indiana: 3:30 CBS
ASU-BYU 3:30 FOXOhio St-USC: 7:30 NBC
Miss St-Texas: 7:30 ABC/ESPN
Miami-UNC 7:30 ABC/ESPN— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) October 19, 2026
As for why NBC is going all-in on USC, there are some obvious reasons.
First, as the Big Ten’s primetime game rights holder, NBC is usually limited by which teams it can access. Fox usually gobbles up all the Ohio State (and Indiana now) home games. Since the Buckeyes are on the road here, Fox can’t pull rank and claim this one.
Second, under the Big Ten arrangement, no USC home game can kick at noon ET, so Big Noon is out. That tends to make the Trojans more available for the evening than traditional Big Ten programs.
Third, Oregon is on the way down, and USC is on the way up. The unranked Ducks have lost two of their last five games and barely held off Nebraska last week. Meanwhile, USC is 6-1 and No. 16 in the nation.
NBC could look to undefeated No. 9 UCLA but, all due respect to the Bruins, they don’t command a TV audience like USC, at least not yet. And their upcoming schedule is a bit of a snooze compared to the Trojans.
So NBC is smartly riding the USC wave on their will-they-or-won’t-they drive back to the College Football Playoff, as long as it keeps going. If the Trojans come out of this stretch without another blemish, there won’t be much reason to look elsewhere.
The post NBC schedules USC-Ohio State on Halloween for fifth-straight Trojans primetime game appeared first on Awful Announcing.