That's right, it's USC. Despite being defeated by the Ducks in head-to-head competition and having a record that's no better than Oregon's, Southern Cal is being judged as a better football team.
In the Bowl Championship Series Standing. the Trojans are ninth and the Ducks 13th. That's because the two polls that the BCS uses both rate USC better than Oregon. The USA Today Coaches Poll has Southern Cal 10th and Oregon 16th. The Harris Poll places the Trojans 10th and the Ducks 14th.
Meanwhile, the AP rankings, which have nothing to do with the BCS, have USC 11th and Oregon 14th.
So obviously, a lot of pretty smart people believe that the Southern Cal Trojans are indeed superior to the Oregon Ducks.
OK, maybe they are. USC certainly brings in talent that is on a level with any college football program in the nation. And Pete Carroll's team has definitely proven its legitimacy over the years.
The trouble is that the Trojans haven't shown it this season.
Trojans Fall Short in Comparison With Oregon
Yes, Oregon did get run over by unranked Stanford 52-41 last week., and it can't be denied that the Ducks deserved to drop in the rankings. In the BCS standings, they fell from No. 8 to No. 13. In the AP poll, Oregon tumbled from No. 7 to No 14.
USC, meanwhile, moved up from No. 12 to No. 9 in the BCS standings, and from No. 12 to No. 11 in the AP rankings. What diid the Trojans do last week? They struggled to a 14-9 triumph over a 4-5 Arizona State team.
The Trojans have two losses — the 47-20 setback at Oregon and a 16-13 defeat vs. Washington, which is 3-6.
Oregon's other defeat was a 19-8 decision at Boise State, which is undefeated and ranked No. 7 in the BCS standings.
There's really no way to justify USC's being ranked ahead of Oregon. But this isn't just about Oregon.
USC Moves Up Even After Unimpressive Victories
USC was ranked No. 3 in the AP poll early the season, but the loss to Washington knocked them all the way back to No. 12, and Washington moved into the rankings at No. 24.
The latter move proved premature the following week, as Stanford easily handled Washington, 34-14, sending the Huskies tumbling out of the Top 25. The same weekend, USC posted an uninspiring 27-6 win over lowly Washington State.
That was somehow good enough to gain the Trojans five spots and place them back at No. 7 in the AP rankings. And the Trojans didn't just get love from the journalists. USC was also ranked No. 7 in the coaches poll.
Losing to Oregon also knocked the Trojans out of the Top 10. But as was the case earlier in the season, USC was back in it a week later despite doing nothing tremendously impressive.
So What Exactly Have the Trojans Done?
USC did defeat Ohio State on the road. That was impressive. And the Trojans did go to Berkeley and beat up on Cal.
But other than that, what have the Trojans done to gain status as a Top 10 football team? Sure, they went on the road and edged out Notre Dame. But unranked Navy did that.
USC struggled to beat Oregon State at home, and it was the same deal vs. Arizona State at Tempe. Yes, the victory over Washington State was by 21 points, but it was the second-closest game the Cougars have played in Pac-10 competition this year.
In all honesty, the Trojans haven't gone out and simply demolished somebody since their 56-3 rout of San Jose State in the season opener.
There are only a pair of two-loss teams in the BCS Top 10, and USC is one of them. The other is No. 8 LSU, which can at least justify its ranking by the fact that its defeats came to No. 1 Florida and No. 2 Alabama. USC cannot.
Why USC Is Still in the Top 10
USC continues to gain high rankings based on reputation. The Trojans have a lot of talent, and even if they stumble a few times, they're still thought of as a great football team — by writers, coaches, etc.
But this year, they haven't been great. They might have Top 10 talent, but they haven't played like a Top 10 team.
It can still happen. The Trojans would definitely raise a few eyebrows by crushing Stanford this weekend, and then burying UCLA and overwhelming Arizona.
Right now, however, it's hard to call USC anything but overrated.
