College Football Rankings 2016: Projected AP Top 25 After National Championship

Pollsters seem to love few things more than a traditional powerhouse on an upswing. That will probably mean a big bump in the AP Top 25 for the Trojans, thanks to their victory on a last-second field goal against Big Ten champion Penn State in the Rose Bowl to open the new year. Sam Darnold set a Rose Bowl record with five touchdown passes, completing 60 percent of his passes for 453 yards. The Trojans came back from a 14-point deficit thanks in part to a defense that snagged three interceptions.

Though USC failed to win the Pac-12 South this season, they will probably finish the year as the league’s highest-rated team. They lost the opener to Alabama before they had turned to Darnold as their starter, going 1-2 with Max Browne at the helm. Darnold lost his first start at Utah before winning nine straight to earn the Archie Griffin Award. USC took down both Pac-12 division champs on that hot streak. It leaves an intriguing question as to whether the Trojans would have been a College Football Playoff team with Darnold in all year.

Thanks to several lopsided losses ahead of them in the poll and their own emphatic victory, AP voters are likely going to give USC one of the biggest bumps possible in their final Top 25. They will also almost certainly open 2017 as the prohibitive favorite in the Pac-12 as well as a contender for the CFP semifinals.