To be frank, USC isn’t that good. don’t get me wrong, it’s a great college, it just doesn’t match up with the other colleges that may be research powerhouses or have amazing students and staff. you can’t base on average SAT scores–SAT scores say nothing about the talents and power of the student body, just their average IQ.
Carnegie-Mellon, Emory, Vanderbilt, UNC, UCLA and Michigan DO indeed belong on that list. Carnegie Mellon is a well-known powerhouse in engineering and comp sci, Vandy/Emory are both “south Ivies,” UCLA is on par+slightly below Berkeley, UNC is VERY good and held the “best value public college” spot for a while, and Michigan is a research powerhouse. USC, on the other hand, has good film/business programs, a good football team, and a well-known marching band.
So I think it comes down to the definition of CC Top Universities. If it’s talking about academic/university strength (hence “top”), then USC–maybe not. If it’s talking about top universities on CC, then maybe USC deserves a spot.