USC football is back.
Well, technically.
The Trojans opened their 2026 season Saturday against San José State at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and USC did its part. The No. 14 Trojans won the game 42-26 and jumped out to a massive early lead.
Unfortunately, based on how the stadium looked at kickoff, a significant portion of Los Angeles apparently had other plans.
Maybe they were stuck in traffic.
Maybe they were at the beach.
Maybe they thought the game was being played on Sunday.
Or maybe they saw that kickoff was at noon, checked the temperature, and decided that watching football from an air-conditioned couch was a much better business decision.
Because the Coliseum looked EMPTY.
And not “there are a few open seats” empty.
We’re talking “did USC accidentally schedule a spring game?” empty.
Officially, There Were 51,144 People There. Visually? Social Media Wasn’t Buying It.
USC announced an attendance of 51,144 for its season opener.
That sounds respectable.
Until you remember that the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum has a listed capacity of approximately 77,500.
And, more importantly, people have eyes.
Television shots from NBC and photos from inside the stadium showed enormous sections of empty seats, particularly around kickoff. The crowd appeared much smaller than the official attendance figure might suggest.
To be clear, attendance figures can include tickets sold rather than the exact number of people physically sitting in the stadium at a particular moment. So the official number and what viewers saw on television aren’t necessarily measuring the exact same thing.
But that didn’t stop college football fans from absolutely destroying USC online.
One person joked that there were “like 12 people” at the game.
Another suggested USC should just build a smaller stadium.
At one point, the Coliseum looked less like the home of one of college football’s biggest brands and more like a Tuesday afternoon game between two minor-league baseball teams.
And honestly, USC couldn’t even blame the scoreboard.
They were winning.
The Game Was Basically Over Before Most People Found Their Seats
USC did not exactly make things difficult on itself.
The Trojans jumped all over San José State and built a 28-0 lead in the first half before cruising to a 42-26 victory.
Quarterback Jayden Maiava threw for 286 yards and two touchdowns as USC opened the season with an encouraging offensive performance.
So this wasn’t a case of fans watching their team get embarrassed and heading for the exits.
The problem was that a lot of people apparently never made it to the entrances in the first place.
Imagine being a USC player.
You spend the entire offseason preparing.
You go through spring practice.
You survive training camp.
You run out of the tunnel for the first game of the season.
You look up into one of the most historic stadiums in America.
And your first thought is probably:
“Wait… are we early?”
To Be Fair, USC Fans Had Some Legitimate Excuses
Before we completely roast the USC fan base, there were some pretty significant circumstances working against the turnout.
First, kickoff was at noon Pacific time.
Second, it was hot.
Very hot.
Reports from the game put the temperature around 94 degrees at kickoff, with the heat feeling even worse. The Coliseum also offers limited protection from the sun in many sections.
So USC essentially asked its fans to sit outside in extreme heat at noon in August.
Against San José State.
That’s not exactly the college football equivalent of Taylor Swift announcing a surprise concert.
The Spartans were also coming off a 3-9 season, and USC entered the game as a massive favorite.
In other words, the marketing pitch was basically:
“Come sit in the blazing California sun and watch us hopefully beat a team we’re supposed to beat by five touchdowns.”
And USC fans responded:
“Respectfully, no.”
Cheap Tickets Apparently Didn’t Save the Day Either
Perhaps the strangest part was that tickets reportedly became extremely inexpensive on the secondary market.
Usually, one of the biggest complaints about attending major sporting events is the cost.
Parking costs money.
Food costs money.
Tickets cost money.
Then you have to explain to your family why you spent $75 on chicken tenders and a bottle of water.
But reports indicated fans could find tickets for less than $10.
That’s less than some people spend on coffee.
And yet the Coliseum still looked like somebody had accidentally put the game on a private calendar instead of national television.
But There Is a Bigger Question for USC
The empty seats are funny.
They absolutely deserve the jokes.
Any college football fan base would get roasted if their stadium looked like that during a nationally televised season opener.
But there is also a legitimate conversation here.
USC is one of the biggest brands in college football.
The Trojans are now playing in the Big Ten.
They have one of the most recognizable stadiums in the sport.
They entered the game ranked No. 14 in the country.
And Lincoln Riley was trying to begin a season in which USC has serious aspirations.
Yet the opening visual of the season was thousands of empty seats.
That’s not ideal.
Lincoln Riley himself has previously acknowledged the unique challenge of building consistent attendance in Los Angeles, where fans have plenty of entertainment options and expect teams to give them a reason to show up.
And that’s the key.
Los Angeles isn’t a traditional college football town where the entire state wakes up on Saturday, puts on school colors and begins drinking before breakfast.
USC has to compete with professional sports, beaches, concerts, traffic, restaurants, entertainment and approximately 700 other things people can do on a Saturday afternoon.
Unfortunately, when USC’s competition was San José State, it appears a lot of people chose literally everything else.
The Good News? USC Won.
At the end of the day, the Trojans did what they were supposed to do.
They beat San José State.
They scored 42 points.
Maiava had a strong opening performance.
And Lincoln Riley remained undefeated in season openers.
The bad news?
The crowd may have been the biggest storyline of the day.
That’s probably not what USC had in mind when it scheduled a nationally televised Week 0 game.
But maybe the next time USC wants to fill the Coliseum, the formula should be simple:
Don’t schedule the game at noon.
Don’t schedule it during a heat wave.
And maybe don’t make San José State the main attraction.
Because USC football returned for the 2026 season.
The problem was finding enough people who were interested in returning with it.
The Trojans may have started the season 1-0.
But based on the empty seats?
The attendance took a much bigger loss than the football team did.
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