USC VOTED #1 IN PAC-10; Pete Carroll Disagrees With Rule Changes

If the PAC-10 Football Championship and the Rose Bowl were decided by a vote, USC would win hands down. Leading up to today's PAC-10 Media Day, West Coast writers made USC their nearly unanimous choice to win the conference title. The Trojans received 38 out of 39 first place votes. The one dissenting vote went to the Cal Bears.

The rest of the PAC-10 vote went like this: Arizona State, Oregon, Cal, UCLA, Oregon State, Arizona, Washington, Stanford and Washington State.

The good news for USC fans is that the PAC-10 Championship isn’t decided by a vote. Instead, Trojan supporters will be able to watch their team play for the PAC-10 title and the BCS National Championship beginning August 30th at Charlottesville, VA against the University of Virginia Cavaliers.

In related news, all of the PAC-10 coaches gathered for Media Day met with Dave Cutaia, the coordinator of PAC-10 officials. He went over all of the rule changes for 2008 including chop blocks, horse-collar tackles, face-mask violations and one of Rey Maualuga’s favorites—the crown of the helmet hit.

Cutaia said that any helmet-to-helmet hit would result in an immediate ejection. USC head coach, Pete Carroll took immediate exception. "This stuff just happens, "Carroll said, "it has nothing to do with the guy’s intent."

Rick Neuheisel, the new UCLA head coach, agreed with Carroll while Ty Willingham, the Washington Huskies, head coach sided with the officials. At that point, all of the coaches weighed in with their takes on the rule.

Cutaia also said that the PAC-10 will use replays to review questionable calls on plays such as field goals.  Bring your sleeping bags to the games, fans.  It looks like you're going to be in for a rather long one.

PAC-10 Conference Commissioner, Tom Hansen told reporters that the conference and the NCAA are continuing to investigate the Reggie Bush case. But he had no further comment on the investigation's status.

If it should be discovered that Bush received illegal benefits while at USC, he will have to forfeit his Heisman Trophy, and USC may have to forfeit its victories in the 2004 and 2005 seasons. The school may also face additional penalties such as a loss of scholarships.

On August 1st a San Diego judge is scheduled to consider a defense motion in the civil lawsuit against Bush and his family to have the case go to arbitration.