This shouldn’t be a news flash. USC already has won six Pac-10 championships in a row, dominating the league like it never has been dominated before. Since its iron-fist run on the conference began in 2002, USC is 34-6 in the Pac-10. And this is happening in an era when parity is supposed to rule.

There are many things working in the Trojans’ favor. That USC is far and away more talented than any other team is reason enough to think the Trojans will run roughshod over their Pac-10 brethren again. Sure, USC has issues on offense—including solidifying its line—but a killer defense should help cover rough patches the Trojans’ offense incurs while taking shape.

Others, however, disagree.

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.

SC starts March 25th and ends with the Spring Game April 19th. According to Rivals, the biggest SC question is QB (Scott Wolf’s boyfriend or Mark Sanchez), while the secondary story is the lack of defensive line studs. The latter is the bigger question in my opinion as they are the most important part of the Cover-Two SC runs.

* I still refuse to use the new name.

Also, they’ve predicted each of the bowl games. Their prediction of a 3-point win for Utah in the Poinsettia was pretty much right on, so hopefully that bodes well for their Rose Bowl prediction (27-10 SC, with Stafon Johnson as player of the game).

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.

One proposal might be USC’s 3-8 in 1991, which included losing a nationally televised opener to the University Formerly Known As Memphis State. But Notre Dame’s no lock to get three wins this season, and did that 3-8 debacle manage zero offensive TDs through the first three weeks?

At any rate, ND very well could lose to the service academies, Duke, and, apparently, Stanford. So three wins is a possibility but my no means a slam dunk.

Other suggestions welcome in the comments …

* Not probation-related.

18. 2005 Orange Bowl: USC wins second straight national title with 55-19 win over No. 2 Oklahoma as Matt Leinart tosses five touchdowns.

35. Pac-10 versus Big Ten: From 1970 through 1992, the Pac-10 went 19-4 in the Rose Bowl.

87. 2001 Fiesta Bowl: The once-pathetic Oregon State Beavers, full of pregame boasts, humiliated Notre Dame 41-9 — and it could have been worse, as the Beavers were flagged for 18 penalties, many for illegal roughness and cheap shots.

To #35 we could add some recent history as well …

First, maybe I was wrong about SC. For the first time in two years, we just lined up and kicked the sh*t out of someone with our OL and running game. So that was nice and made the game very boring very quickly—after 5 minutes were gone in the 3rd, in fact. The great JD Booty is still not wowing me with his throws, but he handed off very well. The secondary remains a question mark, but when you have to face 50+ throws you tend to tire out. So: it’s Oregon, Cal, and ASU, all on the road, that make me nervous.

Notre Dame has now gone 304 days without a win (page 11) and man does beating Army rock.

Lloyd Carr just needed a game against a team with less speed than his.

Tennessee looks slower than a pig in slop.

Alabama had no business beating Arkansas after blowing the 21-0 lead, but without McFadden the Razorbacks couldn’t run out the clock.

UCLA might reconsider a home and home contract with teams from Utah.

Thanks for playing this year Louisville, now take care of West Virginia so that we don’t have to hear about an undefeated Big East team getting left out of the title game.

And finally: October 6th can’t get here fast enough.

Since 2000, the SEC has the nation’s best nonconference record (including bowl games): 247-95, for a .722 winning percentage.

One thought here: maybe the SEC has such a good nonconference record because they schedule such “juggernauts” as Western Carolina, Western Kentucky, and Troy? In fact, the article Leon is responding to makes just this point:

Since 1990, the SEC records against rival conferences is not as impressive as the SEC diehards would lend you to believe: Big-12 (20-16), PAC-10 (10-9), Big East (15-20), Big-10 (30-23), ACC (65-50) and the old Southwest Conference (20-19). So against the BCS Conference members since 1990, the SEC has an overall mark of 160 – 127. While this is good, it isn’t exactly dominant. But what the SEC teams hang their hat on is their record against the non-BCS regime: BWest (30-0), Sun (43-3), MAC (33-5), WAC (32-6), CUSA (57-20) and MWest (9-4) for an overall mark of 204-38.

We rest our case.

1. Auburn hosting South Florida: Both of SI’s college football writers pick the upset.
2. Texas hosting TCU: TCU alum Dan Jenkins prays for the upset and Bob Davie picks the Horned Frogs.
3. UCLA hosting BYU: The battle for Ben Olsen’s soul…
4. Boise State at Washington: If not for the Fiesta Bowl, would anyone outside of Boise or Seattle care?
5. Oregon at Michigan: Can Lloyd Carr save his job for 7 more days?