USC Football After Dire Weeks: The Best Days Are Gone

Well, unless the vuvuzela becomes the official instrument of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, I think it is safe to say that the bad stuff is finally over for our USC football team.

It started with a more than disappointing 9-4 season and ended with the departure of the iconic Pete Carroll, potentially excessive sanctions, and a less than favorable restructuring of the conference.

I'll ask my fellow fans to forgive my enthusiasm in advance.

The only thing that might change in the near future still is something I would view as a positive, which would be the firing of athletic director Mike Garrett.

He seems to have gone out of his way to do everything he can to earn it, and the sanctions that came down on the school are likely a result of his turning a blind eye.

He can't be blamed for everything, though.

The sanctions, a couple of weeks after the fact, still seem excessive. A two-year postseason ban isn't easy to swallow. The NCAA's report didn't make for light reading material, but from what I was able to read, the punishment doesn't fit what they found as evidence.

But, as many fans, I am done trying to argue about the merits of the NCAA's decision. As a governing body, they are increasingly losing touch on their role in college athletics, which should be to maintain fairness in sports instead of pretending to be a judicial body.

No one on their committee has a legal education, so why are they trying to pretend to be arbiters?

To top off what seemed like the last bad news for the football program, Pac-10 expansion did not go to plan. Instead of getting four major programs from the Big 12 along with an extra BCS bid, the Pac-10 only ended up with Utah and Colorado.

The impact will be drastic for USC, as we will likely now play both of those teams on an annual basis; they are thought to be entering our new division.

That means a lot more travel in the mountains and the loss of what USC students call the weekender. That fun, yearly trip to San Francisco will now be held every other year.

All of these sudden changes mean one thing has been cemented. The great days of Pete Carroll will not be continued under Lane Kiffin.

The Pete Carroll era of Trojan football is officially over, and his legacy will be tainted. I'm not sure how he will be viewed by college football historians, but hopefully it won't be too bad.

For Trojans around the country, there will be great changes in the way our football team behaves and is portrayed. Fortunately, I am one of the few people who doesn't think a postseason ban is that bad for USC.

College football is the only sport in America with a truly meaningful regular season because of the lack of playoffs. If USC finishes in the top two by AP vote in one of the next two years, it will really hurt the NCAA and the BCS.

If USC doesn't, then they likely wouldn't care about playing in the bowl game anyway. The University will miss the money, but fans won't really miss the game.

Everyone is going to have to recognize, however, that the year-in, year-out top three finishes for the Trojans are likely over. The big changes of recent mark a major shift in the success of the program (at least temporarily).

The end result for Trojans is uncertainty when the program has been guided by so much certainty in the past. Things will likely get better again eventually, but our run of the Pac-10 (now 12) is far from a guarantee these days.

We'll see what happens. The good news is, we've hit the bottom.

Mr. Lane Kiffin, are you ready to take us to the top?