The 1940 USC Trojans football team represented the University of Southern California (USC) in the 1940 college football season. In their 16th year under head coach Howard Jones, the Trojans compiled a 3–4–2 record (2–3–2 against conference opponents), finished in seventh place in the Pacific Coast Conference, and were outscored by their opponents by a combined total of 98 to 88.^[1]

USC was ranked at No. 41 (out of 697 college football teams) in the final rankings under the Litkenhous Difference by Score system for 1940.^[2]

Date	Opponent	Rank	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 28	Washington State		Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	T 14–14	40,000
October 5	Oregon State		Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	T 0–0	50,000
October 12	at Illinois*		Memorial Stadium Champaign, IL	W 13–7	30,125	[3]
October 19	Oregon	No. 17	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	W 13–0	35,000
October 26	at No. 9 Stanford	No. 17	Stanford Stadium Stanford, CA (rivalry)	L 7–21	60,000
November 9	California		Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	L 7–20	50,000
November 16	at No. 17 Washington		Husky Stadium Seattle, WA	L 0–14	30,000	[4]
November 30	UCLA		Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA (Victory Bell)	W 28–12	70,000
December 7	Notre Dame*		Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA (rivalry)	L 6–10	85,808
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game