By: Marshall Hampson
A record that doesn’t sit too well with USC is 0-4. Stanford has had its way over USC in the last few years and being 2-1 overall isn’t the position the Trojans wanted to be in either.
Matt Barkley came back to get his beloved Trojans in the BCS National Championship game.
A record that doesn’t sit too well with USC is 0-4. Stanford has had its way over USC in the last few years and being 2-1 overall isn’t the position the Trojans wanted to be in either.
Matt Barkley came back to get his beloved Trojans in the BCS National Championship game.
Stanford made USC’s chances of getting into the National Championship game a lot tougher, but the Trojans still have one thing going for them. In the BCS system, it’s better to lose early than lose late.
Losing in Week 3 is a lot better than losing in Week 10. Remember the last one-loss team that made it into the BCS Championship game? Alabama - last year.
A team doesn’t need to be undefeated to make its way in. Alabama won the game with one loss. Oklahoma State didn’t make it in because they lost later in the season.
There’s no need to say USC is out of it and can only make it to the Rose Bowl, but the Trojan’s schedule is getting tougher as teams around them get better.
With a No. 22 Arizona Wildcat team that’s making an early run, USC has that to look forward to later on in the season. No. 3 Oregon is still looking as good as advertised and No. 19 UCLA and No. 11 Notre Dame were two teams before the season started that had no thought of being tough games for the Trojans.
With that being said, the Trojans are sitting at No. 13 in the AP Top-25 Poll right now. They need a lot of teams to lose as well. The Big 12 and SEC have teams in Alabama, LSU, West Virginia and Oklahoma that could potentially go undefeated.
Don’t forget about Oregon either. USC controls its own destiny with Oregon going undefeated. They could potentially still make it into the Pac-12 Conference game and shock an undefeated Pac-12 team, but there are still teams that USC has no control over.
Alabama and LSU play each other on Nov. 3, so one of those teams will lose. USC has 11 teams ahead of them that need to be upset by the time the last week rolls around. That’s the way it is. USC knows that.
Does that mean USC won’t make the championship game? Not necessarily. And yes, Alabama was higher in the poll after its loss last year. USC has a harder route this year than Alabama did last year.
Last year, there was one undefeated team heading into the bowl games and it can happen again. The winner of the LSU-Alabama game could go undefeated. Florida State could go undefeated if it beats No. 10 Clemson this upcoming week and West Virginia could go undefeated in the Big 12.
If there are three or four undefeated teams, USC has no shot. If every team has a loss, the loss in Week 3 might be early enough to propel them to No. 1 or 2 in the BCS rankings by the last week.
The Trojans need to win out (which is no easy task) and a lot of other teams need to lose. To say USC doesn’t have a shot is ignorant to what happened last year. It can happen and it does happen.
Does USC need a lot of help to make it to the BCS National Championship game? Yes. Is it impossible? No.
Losing in Week 3 is a lot better than losing in Week 10. Remember the last one-loss team that made it into the BCS Championship game? Alabama - last year.
A team doesn’t need to be undefeated to make its way in. Alabama won the game with one loss. Oklahoma State didn’t make it in because they lost later in the season.
There’s no need to say USC is out of it and can only make it to the Rose Bowl, but the Trojan’s schedule is getting tougher as teams around them get better.
With a No. 22 Arizona Wildcat team that’s making an early run, USC has that to look forward to later on in the season. No. 3 Oregon is still looking as good as advertised and No. 19 UCLA and No. 11 Notre Dame were two teams before the season started that had no thought of being tough games for the Trojans.
With that being said, the Trojans are sitting at No. 13 in the AP Top-25 Poll right now. They need a lot of teams to lose as well. The Big 12 and SEC have teams in Alabama, LSU, West Virginia and Oklahoma that could potentially go undefeated.
Don’t forget about Oregon either. USC controls its own destiny with Oregon going undefeated. They could potentially still make it into the Pac-12 Conference game and shock an undefeated Pac-12 team, but there are still teams that USC has no control over.
Alabama and LSU play each other on Nov. 3, so one of those teams will lose. USC has 11 teams ahead of them that need to be upset by the time the last week rolls around. That’s the way it is. USC knows that.
Does that mean USC won’t make the championship game? Not necessarily. And yes, Alabama was higher in the poll after its loss last year. USC has a harder route this year than Alabama did last year.
Last year, there was one undefeated team heading into the bowl games and it can happen again. The winner of the LSU-Alabama game could go undefeated. Florida State could go undefeated if it beats No. 10 Clemson this upcoming week and West Virginia could go undefeated in the Big 12.
If there are three or four undefeated teams, USC has no shot. If every team has a loss, the loss in Week 3 might be early enough to propel them to No. 1 or 2 in the BCS rankings by the last week.
The Trojans need to win out (which is no easy task) and a lot of other teams need to lose. To say USC doesn’t have a shot is ignorant to what happened last year. It can happen and it does happen.
Does USC need a lot of help to make it to the BCS National Championship game? Yes. Is it impossible? No.
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