The record speaks for itself. The Trojans:

• Own 11 national titles in five different decades.
• Own the highest all-time winning percentage vs. NCAA opponents of any conference (.704). That percentage ranks seventh among all Division I schools.
• Own a winning record vs. every Pac-10 team, ranging from 55-8-4 (Washington State) to 42-28-7 (UCLA).
• Own a winning record vs. every other BCS conference, including a 17-10-1 mark vs. the SEC.
• Own a 30-16 record in bowl games (.652). Those 30 wins rank second all-time to Alabama, which has 31.
• Own seven wins over No. 1-ranked teams, second only to Notre Dame’s eight.

History? It’s not just one great coach; it’s four: Howard Jones, John McKay, John Robinson and Pete Carroll.

Clutch teams also produce clutch performers: Seven Heisman Trophy winners.

And so on. Anyway, if nothing else it’s nice to have that edge over the SEC.

10. Mark Mangino begins a rigorous pre-season fitness regimen.
9. OU cheerleaders scramble to memorize the words to Boomer Sooner.
8. Nerds across the country prepare for twelve weeks out of the shadows as they don Micheal Jackson-esque pseudo-military uniforms to march in the band.
7. A Northwest Florida cryogenics lab begins de-icing Bobby Bowden.
6. Joe Paterno starts sundowning.
5. BYU embraces its African-American population (may also be an indicator of the start of college basketball, or track, or baseball, or hockey).
4. Los Angeles County Superior Court places priority on the probation hearings of the USC backfield.
3. Schools like Boise State escape safety school obscurity and begin to matter.
2. Perennial powerhouse Notre Dame prepares for a daunting schedule against such formidable opponents as San Diego State, Stanford (err, wait a minute), and Navy.
1. Louisiana increases to the 49th most desirable state as LSU makes a run at another championship.

Speaking of 2018, it looks like the SC/ND contract doesn’t run past that year—unlike their contract with Stanford, which has Stanford on the docket for 2019 and 2020.

* Apparently the first blog to break this story was NDNation.

The other 50% is not as concerned, and here’s why: every time a new head coach comes on the scene who poses a threat, Pete Carroll pays full attention to him and handles him appropriately (lessons learned with Jeff Tedford, Charlie Weis, Dennis Erickson and presumably next season with Jim Harbaugh). Chow may have lost some of his mystique because Vince Young hasn’t improved one iota since joining the Titans. And with the right mix of players, the Sarkiffin offense was far more inventive and productive than any Chow offense ever has. Sure, Booty didn’t develop like Palmer or Leinart, but as CommishRob will tell you, that guy is like four foot three. Also, Chow clashed egos with Carroll, is there any reason to think it won’t happen with another big ego? And he would have to take a 60 to 70% pay cut; even if you’re a multi-millionaire that’s a mega drop. Sure their offense will be more potent, but it’s not like USC isn’t used to dealing with (and shutting down) high-powered offenses in the conference already. And if UCLA goes 10-2 next season and challenges for the Pac-10 title and a BCS berth, someone will hire Walker away ASAP. Which brings us back to Neuheisel: even in his absolute prime, in a state where he didn’t share recruits with anybody, a great stadium, facilities, etc., he had one great team and a bunch of pretty good ones. I think the guy is a good coach, but it’s not like Urban Meyer just moved in down the street.

So I’m torn. My lean right now is, that Stanford loss was so seismic and devastating, that Carroll isn’t going to take anybody lightly and hopefully rededicate himself and his staff to getting this thing back on top. I believe they’ll squeeze out one more title before he returns to the pros.

In the meantime, kudos to UCLA. They are doing exactly what I’d have done as their AD or head coach. Another Pac-10 power only helps SC. Look at the SEC.

P.S. Don’t miss Scott Wolf’s take on this.

Ok I am sorry to everyone for not posting in the past 12 days.  After my visit to LA for the yawnfest that was the Homecoming win, I had a business trip then family in town so yeah I forgot to post about week 11.  Ohio State, thanks for playing.

Thursday Night: Holy Sh*t, the Pac-10 on Thursday night.  It gets even better for Thanksgiving with SC at ASU, but tomorrow Oregon tries to stay in the hunt for the BcS title game with a visit to Tucson.  (Erin Andrews will not be in the Top 50 of hots in that Stadium)

Saturday: Ohio State at Michigan (noon ABC, Musburger/Herbstreit) Ok, this game is worth a trip to Pasadena and maybe the end of Lloyd Carr, but Herbie calling this one seriously, ABC/ESPN come on.  Nessler/Greise without McGuire should have called this one and you should have sent Herbie and Brent to Lubbock.

Saturday Night: Oklahoma at Texas Tech (8pm ABC, Nessler/Greise/McGuire) 4-hour game guaranteed.  Maybe OU spits the bit like 2 years in Lubbock but since the Big 12 officials will be out to get Leach, I doubt it.  West Virginia at Cincinnati (7:45pm ESPN Patrick/Blackledge) maybe the Mountaineers will lose so they won’t complain about being 11-1 and left out.

Ok, that is all that I can recommend for Saturday, you can flip by LSU at Ole Miss (3:30pm CBS Lundquist/Danielson) to see if everyone has a problem concentrating when they come to Oxford because they would rather be in the Grove than in the Stadium whipping Ole Miss and Duke at Notre Dame (2:30pm NBC Hammond/Haden) just to see if Lucky #10 can happen.

I hate what has happened to college football because this used to be the best weekend of the year, rivalry Saturday across the country but with selling out for TV and conference title games the next 2 weekends are better this season. (sad)

Also, to everyone who complains that the Pac-10 doesn’t have a conference championship game, F*CK OFF!  The SEC (Die Roy Kramer for creating these things), Big 12 and ACC all went to 12 teams to get to have a title game ($$$$$$$$$$$) that is the only reason.  The Pac-10 teams play everyone now so stop complain or we will go to 12 teams (hello Utah and BYU) and then we can have years where Oregon would miss USC and ASU and everyone would say they haven’t played anyone.  So, let that stupid tired argument go away like Corso needs to.

Tonight: The Battle of the Techs, with the lovely Erin Andrews on the sidelines. I might watch, since there’s nothing else sports-related on television, but these two teams are seriously dull.

Saturday:

• Early Games: Wisconsin at Ohio State on the Big Ten Network (noon Eastern). For those of you without DirecTV enjoy not seeing this game—meanwhile, I will try and watch on mute as Thom Brennaman and Charles Davis suck. FOX and the BTN should fire them now.
• A little Nebraska at Kansas (12:30 Eastern, FSN) should be interesting, if only to see how Mangino looks in his TENT sweatshirt and how Nebraska responds to playing without Sam Keller.
• Navy at ND (2:30 Eastern, NBC). Will the streak end, or can Charlie the Weis make it 44 in a row against the Middies? If I wasn’t going to be in LA for SC’s homecoming, I would probably see how this one goes.
• Late afternoon: none of the 3:30 Eastern kicks are exciting, so you’ll just have to wait until 5:00pm for the Saban Bowl. LSU will be fired up, but since Les Miles is still on their sideline, I like Alabama’s chances if they can keep it close into the 4th quarter.
• Story of the week: ESPN worked it out with the Pac-10 and FSN to broadcast the ASU/Oregon game to the rest of the country (6:45pm Eastern). Bonus points because Gameday will be there, even if they are making Herbstreit fly to Boston after the show instead of trading him for Blackledge. Maybe Herbie hates Mike Patrick as much as the rest of us do? Dennis Dixon for Heisman can take another huge step forward here.
• Finally, the ABC regional games at 8pm are not great, but most of America will get to see if BC can beat FSU at home.

1  USC at Notre Dame            20-Oct       $409          1        $379
2  Ohio State at Michigan       17-Nov       $408          3        $876
3  Oklahoma vs. Texas            6-Oct       $400          2        $419
4  UCLA at USC                   1-Dec       $312          4        $172
5  Tennessee at Alabama         20-Oct       $238          5        $181
6  Georgia at Florida           27-Oct       $274          7        $284
7  Texas at Texas A&M           23-Nov       $268          6        $233
8  Alabama at Auburn            24-Nov       $373          8        $321
9  Tennessee at Florida         15-Sep       $248          9        $180
10 Michigan at Michigan State    3-Nov       $218         11        $193
11 Notre Dame at Purdue         29-Sep       $105         10        $281
12 Arkansas at LSU              23-Nov       $128         12        $226
13 California at Stanford        1-Dec       $118         13        $ 77
14 Miami at Florida State       20-Oct       $113         14        $137
15 Army/Navy Game                1-Dec       $285         16        $150
16 Florida State at Florida     24-Nov       $401         15        $195
17 Georgia at Georgia Tech      24-Nov       $156         17        $161
18 Oklahoma State at Oklahoma   24-Nov       $160         19        $228
19 Pittsburgh at West Virginia   1-Dec       $139         18        $ 87
20 Oregon State at Oregon        1-Dec       $170         20        $173
21 Clemson at South Carolina    24-Nov       $414         21        $282
22 Virginia Tech at Virginia    24-Nov       $191         23        $147
23 Iowa at Iowa State           15-Sep       $122         22        $218
24 Arizona at Arizona State      1-Dec       $ 80         24        $ 69
25 Purdue at Indiana            17-Nov       $ 77         25        $ 59

Granted, this is a fairly useless ranking, as it only uses gross dollar volume of tickets sold through StubHub. But it’s interesting nonetheless. Also, it looks like the Washington schools didn’t make the cut.

According to a spokesman for BetUS.com, an online gaming website, if Stanford were playing Notre Dame this week at Palo Alto — the teams are scheduled to meet there for real Nov. 24 — Coach Jim Harbaugh’s Cardinal would be favored by 4 1/2 points over Charlie Weis’ offense-starved Irish. . . .

AccuScore.com, which forecasts games after running variables through a simulation engine 10,000 times, predicted a 27-14 Stanford victory. . . .

Hear that, BCS computers? Adjust yourselves accordingly.

Enter college fantasy football. Now, this Saturday, not only will the Urban Poet be rooting for the Trojans, but he will also be cheering on the passing game of Bowling Green. Who? Bowling Green. The “Falcons” are apparently from Ohio of all places—and they’ve been there since 1910! If the Urban Poet’s future kid ever wants to go to a school in Ohio, he prays to god it is to do some vandalism at Ohio St. But not only do the hopes of notable alums Tim Conway, Robert Patrick (“have you seen this boy?”), Eva Marie Saint, and at least three dozen other ruddy faced Midwesterners lie with the fate of the Falcons against the Ohio whatevers, but so does the Urban Poet’s passing offense.

So while you fantasy football participants prepare to root for Toledo, Texas Tech, Navy, Hawaii and the like, we sing together:

Forward Falcons, Forward Falcons,
Fight for victory.
Show our spirit, make them fear it,
Fight for dear Bee Gee.
Forward Falcons, Forward Falcons,
Make the contest keen.
Hold up the fame
Of our mighty name,
And win for
Bowling Green.

Even the Notre Dame fans approve! Or at least most of the Notre Dame fans who frequent YouTube.