Iowa vs. USC
Iowa and USC have 11 meetings on file, the first in 1925; USC leads the series 8–3 in the games on file. Over the last 10 meetings it’s USC 7–3. Share
2027 at Iowa; 2028 at USC. As the programs’ Wikipedia articles list them (CC BY-SA).
- Iowa wins
- 3
- USC wins
- 8
- Ties
- 0
- Earliest on file
- 1925
- Longest streak
- 6 USC
- Current streak
- 1 USC
- Last 10 meetings
- USC 7–3
- Most recent
- 2025
The series at a glance
| ’0 | ’1 | ’2 | ’3 | ’4 | ’5 | ’6 | ’7 | ’8 | ’9 | W–L | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1920s | 0–1 | ||||||||||
| 1950s | 1–0 | ||||||||||
| 1960s | 1–1 | ||||||||||
| 1970s | 0–4 | ||||||||||
| 2000s | 0–1 | ||||||||||
| 2010s | 1–0 | ||||||||||
| 2020s | 0–1 |
- Both ranked
- 2 meetings: Iowa 1, USC 1; 1 both in the top 10
- Average margin
- 21.4 points; 4 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
- At Iowa
- 0–3 Iowa’s record at home
- At USC
- 4–2 USC’s record at home
- Neutral sites
- 1–1 Iowa first
- Shutouts
- 4
Every meeting on file, as played. Ranks are the AP poll’s going in.
Games that tell the story
- Iowa’s biggest win2019: Iowa 49, USC 24by 25 points
- USC’s biggest win1976: USC 55, Iowa 0by 55 points
- Upset1950: Iowa 20, USC 14Iowa had a 31% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Ranked showdown2002: USC 38, Iowa 17No. 3 Iowa at No. 5 USC
- Ranked showdown2019: Iowa 49, USC 24No. 22 USC at No. 19 Iowa
Both programs through the years
Our Elo rating at the end of each season, a measure of how strong a team was, not a forecast; 1500 is an average FBS team.
Stars of the series
Named most valuable
| Ihmir Smith-Marsette Iowa | 2019 |
| A.J. Epenesa Iowa | 2019 |
| Carson Palmer USC | 2002 |
Most valuable: as the games’ Wikipedia articles name them (CC BY-SA).
From the newspapers
1925 · San Antonio light, San Antonio, Tex., Nov 22, 1925
Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The earliest meetings with a story on file; each game’s page has the full text.
On television
| 2025 | BTN | 1.4 million viewers |
Viewers: Nielsen, as compiled by nschultz7’s ratings tracker.
Every game
| Nov 15, 2025 | 17USC 26, Iowa 21 | at USC | ||
| Dec 27, 2019 | 19Iowa 49, 22USC 24 | Qualcomm Stadium | Holiday Bowl | |
| Jan 2, 2003 | 5USC 38, 3Iowa 17 | Neutral site | Orange Bowl | |
| Oct 2, 1976 | 13USC 55, Iowa 0 | at USC | ||
| Oct 4, 1975 | 3USC 27, Iowa 16 | at Iowa | ||
| Oct 5, 1974 | 9USC 41, Iowa 3 | at USC | ||
| Sep 26, 1970 | 7USC 48, Iowa 0 | at Iowa | ||
| Oct 6, 1962 | 6USC 7, Iowa 0 | at Iowa | ||
| Oct 7, 1961 | Iowa 35, USC 34 | at USC | ||
| Sep 29, 1950 | Iowa 20, 12USC 14 | at USC | ||
| Nov 21, 1925 | USC 18, Iowa 0 | at USC |
Every game is listed as played on the field.