Goal Line Stand: Only USC can match SEC

If Ohio State’s players had the opportunity to make any new friends during their brief trip to Los Angeles last week, they’ll be cheered by the reality that a return trip is almost certainly in the offing. Barring any cataclysm, the Buckeyes will win the Big Ten and return west for the Rose Bowl. The even better news is that USC won’t be in Pasadena waiting. Nope, the Trojans will be preparing for the BCS title game, a week later, in Miami.

‘SC’s trouncing of the overmatched Bucks proved several things about the state of college football. The first is that conferring true title contention status on any team north of Georgia is a huge mistake. Even though the Bucks were without running back Chris Wells, they were completely outclassed. Wells could have been 100 percent, and it wouldn’t have mattered. Heck, Archie Griffin, Eddie George and Hopalong Cassady could have played for Ohio State Saturday night, and it wouldn’t have mattered a bit. USC was faster and better than the Bucks, who will now return to their Rust Belt neighborhood and beat up on their beef-footed opposition. Thus, the return flight to SoCal.

It remains to be seen whether the Trojans will win the national title. With 10 games remaining, nothing can be guaranteed, especially when upsets are happening more frequently, and keeping collegians motivated and focused for four-plus months is more challenging these days than preventing a brokerage house from failing. Plenty of pitfalls remain on the schedule, although after watching Maryland dump Cal, UNLV knock off Arizona State, and UCLA hold BYU under 60 in a 59-0 disgrace, it’s hard to imagine a Pac-10’s all-star outfit coming within two touchdowns of the Trojans. But you never know.

The relative weakness of the Pac-10, the Big Ten’s seeming sag, the ACC’s hopeless devotion to basketball, and the Big East’s regression to a mid-major conference underscore USC’s overwhelming might. Although the Big 12 might put up a moderate stink, championship football is played these days in only one locale (save Troy): the Southeastern Conference. Say what you want about the salaries of the coaches and the somewhat dicey admissions standards, but if you want your gridiron action served piping hot, get down to the SEC.

That’s where the players are. That’s where the coaches are. And that’s where the champions come from. Well, when USC doesn’t have a team like it does this year. Ohio State has now been hog-tied by big boys three straight seasons, despite having what seems like a tremendous amount of talent. Why, I myself even picked the Bucks to win it all, and that forecast doesn’t look so good these days. Then again, it could happen. The BCS is quite forgiving of early losses, so you never know whether the Bucks might find themselves in Miami with the opportunity to pull an upset against a heavily-favored, overconfident foe. It isn’t likely, but OSU will probably finish 11-1 and won’t have to worry about getting ambushed in a league title game.

More than likely, ‘SC will square off against Florida, Georgia, LSU, Alabama or some other survivor of the SEC wars. It will be quite an athletic spectacle, what with all that fast-twitch muscle tissue on the field at the same time. They may have to surround the field with a moat in order to prevent the NFL scouts’ drool from flooding the gridiron. And right now, betting against the Trojans would seem as risky as expecting Chad Ocho Cinco to make it through the rest of the NFL season without doing something silly. Southern California’s program is truly something to behold. Everybody knows there is plenty of talent in the Golden State, and whatever the Trojans want, they usually get. But it’s the program’s personality that makes the difference. Before Saturday night’s wipeout, some comments circulated from OSU players about how they didn’t like the wild-and-crazy atmosphere they encountered at ‘SC during recruiting visits. That’s fine and dandy. To each his own and all that. But Pete Carroll has created an environment where top-shelf athletes are allowed to cut it loose every day at practice with playing time as the ultimate reward. With a competitive environment like that, there will be moments of temporary insanity. Come Saturday, however, it is channeled into productive mayhem. Sure, there are some exceptions. (See Stanford, last year.) For the most part, the Trojans win because their players are ferocious big-play machines. There are different ways to promote that, but Carroll’s method seems to be going pretty well so far.

And, come January, won’t it be something to watch the Trojans go up against an SEC juggernaut. If ‘SC wins, there is hope for the rest of the college football world, except of course for the Big East. If not, we might as well let the SEC champ be crowned the national winner and let everybody else play for second place. Last Saturday provided hope for those hoping for a dent to be made in SEC hegemony. Come January, we’ll learn whether the conference has found a suitable body shop or needs to declare the whole thing a loss. Until next year, that is.

GAME OF THE WEEK:
Florida at Tennessee Saturday, September 20, 3:30 p.m. EDT

The Volunteers can’t feel too good about their early-season loss to UCLA, not after the Bruins were skunked by BYU, but they can cheer themselves greatly against a Florida team which didn’t exactly look like a juggernaut in its Sept. 7 win over Miami. The Vols must keep Tim Tebow from dominating the game and have to get a balanced offensive performance or suffer the same fate as did the Hurricanes, who couldn’t pass against the Gators. Tennessee might keep this one close, but the Vols lack the overall firepower to keep Florida down for 60 minutes.
Florida 27, Tennessee 17

BUMPS AND RUNS

Everybody knew Michigan’s offense was going to struggle as new coach Rich Rodriguez tried to find people capable of operating within his spread attack, but the Wolverines’ biggest sins this year have come on defense, raising questions about whether Rodriguez will have the ability to put together a smashing D with no ability to practice against physical schemes.

Let’s hear it for the Mountain West, which could be the nation’s fifth-best conference. The BYU-TCU game should be a dandy, although don’t expect the BCS crowd to be watching.

Look out for Penn State. Although the Nittany Lions haven’t played anyone of consequence so far and should throttle Temple this Saturday, they have some weapons and appear to be on a mission to prove they aren’t a bunch of jailbirds in facemasks.

Arizona’s loss to New Mexico over the weekend was a tough one for coach Mike Stoops, who was hoping to roll off five or six in a row out of the gate, the better to secure a much-needed bowl berth. Good thing the rest of the Pac-10 is stumbling, too.

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