In addition to six straight seasons of 11 wins and a BCS bowl, this is a nice little stat that sidesteps controversies over AP championships and whatnot.

I am a pro-playoff guy and have been since I became aware that this is a sport and not a beauty contest. For 10 seasons, we have seen the BcS change its stripes more times than I care to count and each time against the wishes of most college football fans. I have finally had it. I don’t want a Plus-One; that just means that this year Virginia Tech gets in for beating no one except for a BC team they already lost to, and OU (my #2 team) would be in semi-finals against the alleged #1 and #2 teams. What a crock.

I want an 8-team playoff. I know 16 will never happen and I think that given a season like this, where 8 teams can say they should have a shot at showing they are the best, we should give them the opportunity. If not, then go back to the old beauty contest way with traditional bowl match-ups; Ohio State vs. USC in the Rose, LSU vs. Georgia in the Sugar (since they didn’t play during the regular season), Oklahoma vs. Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl (why did the Big 12 get hosed out of Miami for New Year’s for Phoenix?) and West Virginia vs. Missouri in the Fiesta Bowl. The season was amazing from day 1 with Appalachian State beating Michigan in Ann Arbor and it has propelled them on to the semi-finals of the Division 1-AA playoffs. See, all of the other kids are supposed to be the same but big time football is the sacred cow and apparently no would be excited about Ohio State hosting Kansas, LSU hosting USC, Virginia Tech vs. Missouri and Georgia at Oklahoma. Very sad that a sport that is just the best for 3 full months becomes irrelevant in 24 hours.

Now on to the Trojans: I was not a believer as many of you know. I felt that the “Dwarf from Shreveport” would never take this team anywhere and that we were destined for 9-3 and a trip to San Diego. Well the injury bug struck every Pac-10 contender and so we got another BcS trip and a 4th Rose Bowl in 6 years along with a 6th consecutive conference title. This team came on late and really looked good on for a half against ASU and 3 quarters against Nebraska. That was really it—the rest of the season the offensive play calling was inconsistent and the defense had to make just enough plays so the team got wins. I am not sure if the offense was so underwhelming because of the Dwarf’s inability to execute the plays, or Sarkisian feeling that he was the smartest guy there and thinking that no matter what we should throw all the time. The other thing I never got is why Stafon Johnson didn’t get more carries—either he was really injured or again Pete gave his seniors the benefit of the doubt sticking with Chauncey all season and Booty against Stanford.

The whole season for USC really boils down to the last 4 minutes of the Stanford game. They had a great game plan for SC and we played right into by being to confident in our offense. Three runs and a punt and we sneak out with a win because they were not going 80 yards against our defense with no time outs. Meanwhile, we would be 11-1 and playing Ohio State. But we were not smart enough to figure out that stats aren’t important wins are. Oh well, now we can find out if it was really the “Dwarf” that held this team back as in ’08 they will start the season in the Top 5 and we will see if Sanchez or Mustain are ready to fill the shoes of Matt Leinart who is the gold standard for SC QB play. Until we do the fans will not be satisfied and we will keep playing against crappy Big-10 teams in the Rose Bowl as the reward for the season instead of for National Championships in the craptacular system that we have to deal with in my opinion for another 7 years minimum. (Thanks Tournament of Roses Committee for a deal with ABC through 2014).

1. LSU (65) 6-0 1,625
2. California 5-0 1,538
3. Ohio State 6-0 1,511
4. Boston College 6-0 1,346
5. South Florida 5-0 1,339
6. Oklahoma 5-1 1,221
7. South Carolina 5-1 1,183
8. West Virginia 5-1 1,059
9. Oregon 4-1 1,047
10. USC 4-1 1,024

and 3-1 in the Coaches poll.

1. LSU (58) 6-0 1,498
2. California 5-0 1,416
3. Ohio State (2) 6-0 1,399
4. Boston College 6-0 1,283
5. Oklahoma 5-1 1,145
6. South Florida 5-0 1,145
7. USC 4-1 1,000
8. Oregon 4-1 936
9. West Virginia 5-1 931
10. Virginia Tech 5-1 913

In fact, we’ve also got the edge (4-3) if you look at the Top 15. So we might’ve lost our edge with the oddsmakers, but at least we’ve got this going for us, which is nice.

A Florida victory over undefeated Louisiana State at Tiger Stadium could propel USC and California to the top spots in the national rankings — a coup for the Pacific 10 Conference.

Adding a touch of irony to this scenario, it was LSU Coach Les Miles who spent the off-season casting aspersions upon the quality of play in the Pac-10.

(Sorry, we had to include that jab at Les Miles too.)

After perhaps his best recruiting season yet, Pete Carroll’s eyes have never been so wide, because his pockets have never been so stuffed.

He has built great teams before but never like this.

They’ve never been this fast. They’ve never been this deep.

And — shudder — maybe they’ve never been this good?

“This is the most competitive team we’ve had,” said Carroll, who never says those sorts of things, and certainly never in May.

This depth includes 10 (10!) prep All-American running backs and a defense almost entirely full of returning starters. And then there are the quarterbacks: a Heisman candidate, a couple of prep All-Americans, and a guy—Mitch Mustain—who last year went 8-0 in leading one of the best teams in the country.

In short, we concur with the consensus.

UPDATE: Las Vegas apparently also agrees, setting the odds of USC’s winning the championship at 5-2. (Defending champ Florida is a distant second, coming in at 7-1.) Also, via TrojanWire, it appears that we’ve got more (albeit less proven) transfer talent coming in.