Sorry USC, You Have No Case!

And USC fans: Don't root for Oklahoma to lose to Missouri. Because if it happens, Texas will go to the title game, not you. But Texas isn't the Big 12 champs you say? Texas will say that it isn't their fault. They beat both participants of the Big 12 title game, and were one big play at the end of the game from being undefeated.

Also, USC fans negated that argument by rooting for Oregon State to win the Pac-10 so you could escape the Big 10 matchup in the Rose Bowl and claim to deserve the AP title for blowing out Texas in case Oklahoma beat Florida.

I am not making this up, Ted Miller, the longtime West Coast media guy who does the Pac 10 blog for ESPN was promoting just such a scenario, and he was far from the first USC partisan advocating this idea. So all that outrage that West Coast fans generated over Oklahoma and Nebraska getting to play for the national title despite winning their conference?

Out the window.

You can't turn around and reject an argument that you were going to use yourself, especially since that argument represented a reversal of your prior position. But then again, the "defense wins championships" argument is a reversal of the USC 2003-2004 position against LSU and Auburn, so who cares right? As long as it benefits our team!

So, USC fans, you are right where you should be at No. 5. No, actually, you should be No. 6 behind Penn State, and possibly even be No. 7 behind Texas Tech. Tech played two I-AA teams, but you guys played UW and WSU, so let's call it even and give Tech the clear advantage in the portions of each of your schedules that had a pulse!

Now, I will not insult USC by claiming that they should be No. 8 behind undefeated Utah. But that is more consideration than many USC and West Coast fans gave Auburn in 2004 when lots of them, including this same Ted Miller, stated that Auburn's case for a split title was no better than Utah's, and that Utah would probably take Auburn on a neutral field.

Bottom Line

USC is not the best of the six one-loss teams but is actually the least accomplished and the least deserving. Instead of being a victim of bias, USC is actually overvalued by virtue of being ranked over Texas Tech and Penn State, and certainly by virtue of still having media members at this very second plotting for ways for USC to get into the title game, and would certainly be plotting a way to get them the AP title (their only loss was on the road to the Pac-10 champs!) had Oregon simply complied.

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