Pete Carroll, USC Have No Room to Squawk!

Yesterday, Pete Carroll stated in the media that the BCS "stinks"! I find it very hard for Pete Carroll to be ranting about the BCS when it has already played to his team's advantage before.

Now, being that I am a UCLA fan and actually a Pete Carroll fan (he's kind of hard not to like), I am writing this article with a totally bipartisan perspective.

It wasn't that long ago (2004 to be exact) that Carroll's Trojans leapfrogged the undefeated Auburn Tigers to play in the BCS National Championship game. Ironically, Auburn was snubbed essentially for the same reason that USC is getting the shaft; playing in a weak conference.

In 2004, the SEC was a shell of the conference it usually is and Auburn felt the repercussions in the BCS. While Auburn went 13-0 (8-0 in conference), the next best record was Georgia at 10-2 (6-2 in conference).

Auburn went on to narrowly beat Virginia Tech in the Nokia Sugar Bowl and then USC routed Oklahoma in the FedEx Orange Bowl for the National Championship. In the case of 2004, it would seem that the BCS got it right.

Fast forward to today's current BCS quandary or scenario, depending on who you talk to. Pete Carroll is griping about being passed over by two different teams in the BCS rankings this week.

In my opinion, these two teams were easy choices to pass up the Trojans, even if there was no system in place and you were picking arbitrarily. 

First, Texas Tech beat the No. 1 team in the country and is still undefeated.

Second, Florida romped an upper-echelon SEC team in the Georgia Bulldogs, 49-10. After blanking the Washington Huskies 56-0, an expected outcome against a team without direction, I do not see why Coach Carroll is complaining, especially at this juncture of the season.

Did Carroll think Texas should be put below the Trojans for losing their first game, might I add, to a much better team than Oregon State.

Should the Trojans have passed up the Oklahoma Sooners, whose one loss is also much better looking than Oregon State (ahem, Texas)? No, they shouldn't.

The fact is, I don't know why Pete Carroll is expressing his distaste this week specifically. We all know he has not been a fan of the BCS since its inception and its reincarnation after the mess in 2004, but this time, it just seems as though he had to get something off his chest.

Maybe he and Will Ferrell had a falling out, or Marcus Allen cancelled a luncheon on short notice and he decided to take it out on the BCS. I don't know.

I do know that it's too early to be lambasting a system that gifted him a championship four years ago, while there is still a lot of football left to be played.

The teams ahead of the Trojans can still be usurped, and I think ol' Pistol Pete knows this. He just has to keep winning and watch the cards fall as they may.