Paul Finebaum Reveals Big Ten Team Under The Most Pressure In 2024

With Big Ten Conference media days underway, the discussion is in full force. New teams such as Washington, Oregon, USC, and UCLA certainly give the conference a much different look and dynamic.

College football analyst Paul Finebaum revealed which Big Ten team is under the most pressure in 2024, and he chose the USC Trojans.

Heather Dinich picked Ohio State, and Ryan Day has a lot of expectations with one of the best rosters in the country. But, Finebaum went into great detail on his choice of USC in an episode of Get Up.

“Southern Cal because of the fact that they are the biggest name in that part of the country,” Finebaum said. “They’re heading into the Big Ten and they’re coming off a disappointing season. How about a terrible season? And (Lincoln Riley) has to do something about it. He can’t just show up today and talk about ‘well we made mistakes last year, we lost a couple of close games.’ He has to lay out a blueprint, so I think in some ways he has, he’s gone out and gotten a new defensive coordinator. But that’s seemingly an every year or every couple of years thing for Lincoln Riley."

Iowa Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz had some interesting comments on USC on Wednesday, saying the Trojans could " be a factor" in the conference .

But, to Finebaum's point, USC has a target on its back. Lincoln Riley came over from Oklahoma and was expected to have the Trojans competing for a top spot in the Pac-12. Last year, they went 8-5 in a disappointing year with Caleb Williams under center.

Finebaum mentions it's time for Riley to put a "stamp" on it.

“But he has to put his stamp on this new league because this is the same man, in my opinion, after being beaten in Norman a couple of times, that ran away from the SEC. Now he ends up having a league of the same ilk, and he has to deal with it and he’s not dealing with it from a position of strength, having lost Caleb Williams last year," Finebaum said.

With the move to the Big Ten, even more eyes will be on Riley and the Trojans. Let's see if he can answer the call and get USC back on the national relevancy.

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