Under the NCAA's new tougher academic standards, which bans teams with a four-year academic progress rate (APR) below 930 from participating in the postseason, USC is one of 12 teams that would have been ineligible to compete in the NCAA men's basketball tournament last season.
The Trojans, which lost in the first round of the tournament, scored 912.
You can crunch the numbers yourself at the NCAA database, but here's a quick look at the most recent APRs from the old Pac-10 schools.
Washington: 980
Stanford: 976
Washington State: 971
Arizona State: 961
Arizona: 950
California: 948
UCLA: 948
Oregon State: 939
Oregon: 934
USC: 912
New Pac-12 member Colorado scored 926 and would have been barred from the National Invitational Tournament where it advanced to the semifinals. Meanwhile Utah tallied 990.
The APR is a somewhat controversial and imperfect measuring tool that determines how effective schools are at graduating student-athletes. The rating system has its flaws because it doesn't factor in grade-point averages and penalizes schools when underclassmen leave early for the NBA.
Still it also shines a spotlight on schools with poor graduation records over a four-year period. In previous years, teams would most likely lose scholarships if its APR dipped below 900.
Under the tougher guidelines and penalties, new NCAA president Mark Emmert, the former UW president, is hitting teams in the pocketbook for failing to meet academic requirements.
It also looks as if Emmert is trying to give student-athletes a little more money. He appears to be in favor of schools paying players a cost-of-living stipend in addition to the current scholarship which covers tuition, room and board, fees and books.
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