The Associated Press USC receiver Tanook Hines catches a pass thrown by third-string quarterback Sam Huard on a fake punt play that turned out to be illegal.

ROSEMONT, Ill. — Southern California should have been assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty during its game against Northwestern for having a reserve quarterback who executed a fake punt wear the same number as the Trojans’ regular punter, the Big Ten announced Sunday.

Early in the second quarter of Friday’s game in Los Angeles, third-string quarterback Sam Huard lined up in the punter’s spot wearing jersey No. 80 on a fourth-and-6 play. He took the long snap and completed a pass to Tanook Hines for a 10-yard gain. The Trojans scored a tie-breaking touchdown five plays later and won 38-17.

Sam Johnson, the Trojans’ regular punter who wears No. 80, punted for the first time on the next possession. At that point, the Big Ten said in a statement, USC should have been penalized under the NCAA’s “Unfair Tactics” rule (Rule 9, Section 2, Article 2).

Paragraph D states, “Two players playing the same position may not wear the same number during the game.”

The Big Ten said it would continue to review the situation with both schools.

Huard is listed as No. 7 on the Trojans’ official online roster. He was listed as No. 80 along with Johnson on the game-day roster.

Northwestern coach David Braun did not complain about the play after the game.

Change your mind?

Instead of simply pushing for a limited number of automatic qualifiers in the next version of the College Football Playoff, leaders in the Southeastern Conference are now suggesting they don’t want any at all.

The results from last weekend might show they have a point.

The last two teams in the season’s first projected 12-team bracket — both of which were outside the selection committee’s top 12 — each lost last week, meaning the bracket that comes out Tuesday could include a pair of even lower-ranked teams.

The best Atlantic Coast Conference program in the latest AP Top 25 is now No. 14 Georgia Tech, which didn’t play last weekend but replaced Virginia as the ACC’s top team after the Cavaliers lost to Wake Forest.

The playoffs also award an automatic bid to the fifth-best conference champion. After a loss by Memphis — unranked in the last playoff rankings but still given the projected 12th seed in the bracket — this week’s placeholder could be AP No. 24 James Madison or No. 25 South Florida. If the SEC gets its way, those sort of stories from places that don’t regularly generate college football headlines — for instance, last year’s Boise State team — could be all but gone from the sport’s biggest stage.