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Both the USC Trojans and the USC Gamecocks have brutally difficult schedules for the 2019 college football season, which could keep them from even going .500 next year.

Bowl season hasn't begun yet, but it isn't too early to start looking ahead to next season—especially for programs that aren't playing in bowl games. Given the difficulty of these schedules, these teams should already be prepping for the treacherous journey ahead.

In ranking these 10 toughest schedules, the full 12-game slate was considered. However, nonconference challenges were worth a little extra since programs went out of their way to schedule those games.

Teams are ranked in ascending order of how many losses an average team would acquire against that schedule. For instance, a schedule with one easily winnable game, nine coin-flip games and two next-to-impossible challenges (estimated 5.5 wins) would rank as tougher than a schedule with five easy wins, five nightmarish opponents and two 50-50 battles (estimated 6.0 wins)—even though the second schedule seems tougher at first glance due to the sheer number of almost-definite losses.