Apparently, USC does not have any literature classes — or at least none on ancient Greece.
Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” hit theaters on Friday, and the USC football team tried to get in on the fun, posting “Our Odyssey begins August 29” on X, referring to their first game of the year.
The issue with that is Homer’s 8th century epic poem “The Odyssey” follows Odysseus’ 10-year journey back to Greece after defeating the city of Troy in the Trojan War — the same city that serves as inspiration for USC’s nickname.
The literary Trojans never had an odyssey.
In fact, Troy was burned and destroyed during the Trojan war, according to Homer’s earlier poem “Iliad” — with very limited survivors.
College football fans reacted to the slip up about how you’d expect.
“Wow, this is absolutely fantastic work,” one fan said sarcastically. “Did you hire a Notre Dame or UCLA grad to run the twitter account or something?”
USC famously has a rivalry with both programs mentioned.
The school was first given its nickname, the Trojans, in 1912 when a sports editor suggested it because of the fighting spirit the school’s athletes had when playing bigger, more equipped schools.
Prior to that, USC sports teams were known as the Methodists or Wesleyans.
Another related “The Odyssey” to USC’s recent success, or lack there of, nothing that just like Odysseus, the Trojans have been going through “10 years of being lost, wandering, saying you’re almost there.”
Regardless of whether will be an odyssey, USC will start its 2026 journey on Aug. 29 against Mountain West foe San Jose State.
DraftKings has the Trojans at +3500 to win the national championship this season and +240 to make the College Football Playoff.
USC faces one of the more challenging schedules in the Big Ten this season, facing Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State and Oregon, but it still has +1400 odds to win the conference.
