University of Southern California Sports

The University of Southern California (USC) is a private research university with an undergraduate enrollment of 20,790 students, plays a total of 21 NCAA sports, 9 of them for men and 12 of them for women. In the 2021/2022 season, the University of Southern California had a total of 581 NCAA athletes comprising a mere 3% of the total student body.

USC is likely to have recruited many of the athletes on its NCAA sports teams through the Division 1 athlete recruitment process, enabling these recruited athletes to leapfrog the normal admissions process. It is our best estimate based on team profiles that about 50% to 75% of their teams comprise of recruited athletes while the remaining athletes are “walk-on” athletes who were admitted to USC on merits unrelated to sports.

How Top Colleges in Division 1 Select their Athlete Recruits

The table below lists the NCAA and varsity sports played at the University of Southern California and the number of athletes in each sports team.

All data compiled from University of Southern California athletic website.

University of Southern California (USC)
Division 1
	Men's	Men's	Women's	Women's	Total
	Sports	Team Size	Sports	Team Size	Team Size
1	Baseball	40	-	-	40
2	Basketball	16	Basketball	14	30
3	-	-	Beach Volleyball	24	24
4	-	-	Cross Country	14	14
5	Football	92	-	-	92
6	Golf	11	Golf	8	19
7	-	-	Lacrosse	31	31
8	-	-	Rowing	42	42
9	-	-	Soccer	30	30
10	Swimming and Diving	39	Swimming and Diving	30	69
11	Tennis	11	Tennis	11	22
12	Track and Field	30	Track and Field	36	66
13	Volleyball	22	Volleyball	18	40
14	Waterpolo	34	Waterpolo	28	62
Total Sports Played	9		12		21
Total Athletes		295		286	581

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