Tommy Trojan could use a few bucks

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Sept. 9. You can expect among the most punishing weather days in L.A. memory: an unholy, unprecedented marriage of temperature and dew point. Stay strong and stay safe — we will get through this together.

Among the many rich details in Tomo Chien and Matt Hamilton’s big story about USC’s long fall and potential comeback, one part of one sentence jumped out at me: “Knowledgeable sources say some of USC’s biggest units — its engineering and medical schools and athletics department — continue to lose money.”

The financial fuel of USC athletics is, of course, its football team — the third-biggest sports entity in town behind the Dodgers and Lakers. With eleven national championships and a record eight Heisman Trophy winners, USC football is among the top handful of college football programs in history, sharing a pantheon with the likes of Alabama, Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State, and Oklahoma.

But the Trojans do not compete with those schools on the field of finances: USC earns about $74 million in revenue per year from football, according to a recent ranking by The Athletic, while the other five take in roughly $140 to $200 million. And even as the Trojans begin a high-expectation season with their highest ranking in preseason polls since 2023, money is likely to remain top of mind. Only two games in, they’ve made national headlines — not for winning both, but for how few people showed up.