USC Trojans quite naturally are of the general opinion that they deserve a shot at the national title, and are being unfairly denied because of bias against western football.

Curious that this bias did not prevent USC from splitting the AP title with an LSU team with a better record in 2003, or gaining a unanimous title over an Auburn team with a better record in 2004, but USC fans only seem to remember the times when the system did not give them what they wanted.

In any event, let us attend to USC's case for the title point by point.

1. USC has the No. 1 defense.

It is great that USC is using this argument this season, because if it works for them, they can give back their 2003 and 2004 AP titles. Why? Because LSU and Auburn were either No. 1 or No. 2 in defense in 2003 and 2004, and while USC's defense was good both years, they were not as close to the top as the defenses for Florida, Alabama, and Penn State are this year.

No, in 2003 and 2004, the USC argument was how they were piling on the points so fast that the SEC teams couldn't keep up. Now that it is Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech, and Penn State with the "we had our starters on the bench by midway through the third quarter!" offenses, now USC wants to use the "defense wins championships" argument? Obviously hypocrisy runs deep in college football.

But wait, you say, USC's defense is not only No. 1, but one of the greatest in history, probably the best ever!

Pardon me, but we have heard "best ever" superlatives about USC before, such as how the 2005 team was "the best ever" and how Reggie Bush, who has 1440 NFL career rushing yards at 3.6 per carry on a team with a great passing game and offensive line in three NFL seasons, was "the best college tailback since Gale Sayers."

Well, let us apply another argument from the USC 2003 - 2004 years to the current USC team: USC's defenses look great because they are playing bad offenses. The 11 teams that USC have played this year contained only ONE 2500 yard OR 20 TD passer, ND's Jimmy Clausen.

It contained only one rusher to surpass 1200 yards in a 12 game season (Jacquizz Rodgers, who torched USC for nearly 200 yards). And it did not contain a single 1,000-yard WR.

So, USC's historic defensive season came with QB Jimmy Clausen, RB Jacquizz Rodgers, RB Jahvid Best, RB Toby Gerhart (Stanford, who scored 23 points on USC in what was supposed to be a "revenge game" by the way, with Gerhart rushing for 100 yards), RB Jeremiah Johnson, and WR Sammie Stroughter being the only players that can be accused of being above average.

And some of these, particularly Clausen, would be exonerated of that accusation upon actually seeing him play against good teams.

Let us compare this with, say, the Big 12.

They have NINE passers with more than 2500 yards, including six with more than 3000 yards, and please consider Josh Freeman's 2,945 yards and Jerrod Johnson's 2435. I will grant you that there are only four above average rushers in the Big 12 (Tom Osborne, Bill McCartney, Darrell Royal, and Barry Switzer cannot be pleased), but Oklahoma has two of them.

Oklahoma's No. 1 tailback would be No. 5 in the Pac 10 in rushing, and their No. 2 tailback would be No. 6! (And that is with Sam Bradford having 4000 passing yards and 46 TDs.)

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