Just when you think it won't happen - it does. USC was supposed to cruise through a weak Pac-10 schedule. In fact, throughout this week the talk was whether or not the weak Pac-10 would cost USC a title game spot in a BCS beauty contest. Before the season, I thought this might be the one game USC might have trouble. Not Ohio State. Oregon State. It's about timing, setting and circumstances. For the last 10 days or so, USC has read about how great they are in the media. Some experts even starting putting Mark Sanchez in the Heisman race. USC took the Ohio State game seriously. Tonight's game is the type of game we see an elite team show up flat because they just aren't that fired up.
Make no mistake - this should be the loss that effectively eliminates USC from the national title hunt UNLESS the SEC and Big 12 champ has more than two losses. This is another bad loss and Carroll (who I still consider to be the best coach in college football) needs to get a ton of criticism. Oregon State lost the opener to Stanford and then got rolled by Penn State. There is no way that USC should elevate any Big 12 or SEC team with the same number of losses at the end of the season.
Tonight is what separates college football's regular season from all others. There is NOTHING like this in the NFL regular season. Not even close. This is why the system may frustrate but it's also great for the regular season. If not for the system, USC simply captures another Pac-10 title and gets a playoff spot. Tonight's game is a footnote instead of a shocking development that turned the college football world over.
It will be interesting to see how Oklahoma responds this weekend against TCU knowing that a win puts them at No. 1. If the Sooners are ranked No. 1 next week, I believe they would take the lead in most weeks at No. 1 of all time passing Notre Dame.
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