USC won 37 conference championships on the West Coast, twelve in the Pacific Coast Conference and 25 in the league that became the Pac-12, more than double any other member across a century. Two more, in 2004 and 2005, were vacated by the NCAA. The program joined the Big Ten in 2024 and has not yet won it, and the 2017 Pac-12 title remains the last.
Every Title by Conference
| Conference | Titles | Seasons |
|---|---|---|
| Pacific Coast Conference | 12 | 1927, 1928, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1938, 1939, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1947, 1952 |
| AAWU, Pac-8, Pac-10, Pac-12 | 25 | 1959, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1984, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1993, 1995, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2017 |
| Vacated | 2 | 2004, 2005 |
| Big Ten | 0 | Joined 2024 |
Every Title by Coach
| Coach | Titles | Seasons |
|---|---|---|
| John McKay | 9 | 1962, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974 |
| Howard Jones | 7 | 1927, 1928, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1938, 1939 |
| Pete Carroll | 5, plus 2 vacated | 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008; 2004 and 2005 vacated |
| John Robinson | 5 | 1976, 1978, 1979, 1993, 1995 |
| Jeff Cravath | 4 | 1943, 1944, 1945, 1947 |
| Larry Smith | 3 | 1987, 1988, 1989 |
| Jess Hill | 1 | 1952 |
| Don Clark | 1 | 1959 |
| Ted Tollner | 1 | 1984 |
| Clay Helton | 1 | 2017 |
The Seven Straight
Pete Carroll’s teams won the Pac-10 every year from 2002 through 2008, seven consecutive championships that carried seven straight BCS bowl appearances and two national titles. The NCAA later vacated 2004 and 2005 over the Reggie Bush findings, which reduces the official run to five, but the conference standings of those years were not rewritten and no other school was awarded them.
McKay’s Nine and the Rose Bowl
John McKay won nine conference titles in sixteen seasons, and in that era the title meant the Rose Bowl. USC’s 34 Rose Bowl appearances and 25 wins are both records for any school in any bowl, and the conference championship was the route to nearly all of them. The four straight from 1966 to 1969 covered the O.J. Simpson years and the first of two Heismans in the run. Our bowl history page covers those games.
The West Coast Margin
USC’s 37 titles are more than twice any other program that played in the Pacific Coast Conference and its successors. Washington and UCLA are the nearest challengers with fewer than twenty each, and Oregon, the conference’s dominant program in its final decade, won it eight times. The margin is the reason USC’s departure for the Big Ten in 2024 was treated as the end of the Pac-12 rather than an exit from it.
The Big Ten
USC went 4 and 5 in Big Ten play in 2024 and 7 and 2 in 2025, finishing outside the championship game both years. The 2017 Pac-12 title under Clay Helton, a 31 to 28 win over Stanford, is the program’s last conference championship, and the nine years since are the longest gap since the 1990s. Our head coaches page covers the coaches who produced the titles and the ones who did not.
The Bottom Line
USC won 37 conference championships in the Pacific Coast Conference and the Pac-12 lineage, 39 counting the two the NCAA vacated, more than any program in the history of West Coast football. John McKay won nine and Pete Carroll seven in a row. The 2017 title is the most recent, and the Trojans have not yet won the Big Ten. Our page on most conference championships shows where USC ranks nationally.