In my College Football Best Bets of the weekend, I mentioned I was a little weary about the home underdog on Thursday night games. But come on, this was USC! “They’re the best in the country!.” “They can beat an NFL team.” No, no and no. The mighty Trojans were thoroughly outplayed from the opening kickoff and are now forced to pick up the pieces after a 27-21 loss to Oregon State. 

Lets get this out of the way right now. USC is all but eliminated from the National Championship race. Why? Because of how much fail is in the PAC-10. With every team in the conference already having at least one loss the Trojans are going to be hard-pressed to pick up any quality wins in conference play. Sure, they get Notre Dame to close things out. But even if the Trojans emerge from this wake-up call and run the table, they’re still not going to have enough on their resume to surpass a one team loss from superior conferences like the SEC and Big 12. Running through the likes of Texas/Texas Tech/Missouri/Kansas or Georgia/Alabama/LSU/Auburn is a lot more impressive than UCLA/Arizona/Oregon/California.

Most upset-minded teams usually have the benefit of some good calls, a turnover returned for a touchdown or a variety of trick plays. This was not one of those games. Oregon State did get lucky on their 3rd touchdown, but USC’s defense was pushed off the ball all night. Credit the Oregon State offensive line and true freshman Jacquizz Rodgers (all 5′7 of him) for smacking USC in the mouth for 60 minutes. 

In a nutshell, what we saw last night was shocking. It was unexpected. It was college football. With conference play getting into full gear over the next couple weeks, don’t expect things to change anytime soon

After last night’s overtime thriller in Pasadena, the opening week of the new college football season is officially in the books. No teams in the top ten fell, but there was still plenty of drama around the country. Here’s some things I noticed in week one.

Orange Teams Fail: Clemson, Tennessee and Illinois all dropped their openers. Another year with preseason expectations in Clemson quickly evaporated, as the Tigers were absolutely dismantled by Nick Saban’s Alabama team. Make no mistake, Tommy Bowden is a hell of a recruiter. But giving the dynamic rushing duo of James Davis and CJ Spiller a whopping eight total carries? That’s grounds for not just unemployment, but a date with a firing squad. As for the Vols, they had two missed field goals, a block punt returned against them for a touchdown and another field goal taken off the board because of a penalty. And did I mention they lost despite four first half interceptions? Wow.

Down Goes Beanie: Sure, Ohio State barely broke a sweat in their season opener, routing Youngstown State 43-0. But despite the easy win, the Buckeyes may have just destroyed their season. Heisman canidate Chris “Beanie” Wells went down in the 3rd quarter with a foot injury. He’s doubtful for this weekend’s game against Ohio, but obviously the focus will be getting him healthy in time for next weekend’s clash with USC. Should Wells have been in the game to begin with? With a 26-0 lead already, it’s cerainly a point worth debating.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you thought that the SAT was a joke for high school athletes before, laugh even more now. According to this L.A. Times article, The College Board has decided that all students will no longer have to submit all their SAT scores to prospective universities, just the best score, as of the class of 2010.

Never mind the ramifications that it will have on normal students. This complicates an already murky landscape when it comes to the SAT for student athletes. Let’s be honest; most athletes aren’t exactly the brightest bunch in the head. Whatever methods they can take legally (or for the desperate, illegally), they will.

There have been more than a few times where an athlete would have a dramatic jump in their SAT score. Whether it was through hard studying (yeah…right), taking a class, or what many people would more or less accuse of as cheating, there were questions to be asked of a score change that seemed to be out of the ordinary.

Now? This decision opens up Pandora’s Box for the SAT. Those questions don’t have to be asked, to the delight of athletic directors all over this country. If those opportunities for cheating weren’t there before, they sure can be there now.

At least USC doesn’t like this decision and may still consider all SAT scores. That said, with O.J. Mayo being as retarded as he is in light of the allegations that are surrounding him, I don’t think it would make much of a difference.

If you were watching NFL Network’s coverage of the draft yesterday, you may have seen the best comedy bit ever made. It was USC alum and famous actor Will Ferrell teaching the Trojans’ Ryan Kalil some blocking techniques. The video is classic Ferrell, right down to the hideously short shorts. But it’s hilarious. Deadspin caught it yesterday and here it is.

In the aftermath of a Sweet 16 appearance and commitment of O.J. Mayo, the USC Trojans aren’t wasting any time in building their 2008 recruiting class. They’ve already received four star commitments from Angelo Johnson and Demar DeRozan. But DeRozan does not come alone: he brings a special teammate and friend to the mix: Lil’ Romeo. Yes, this Lil’ Romeo.

There are reports that DeRozan will bring along friend and travel ball teammate Romeo Miller of Beverly Hills High. Miller is also known as rapper Romeo or Lil’ Romeo, and is the son of rapper and entrepreneur Master P.

The R-O-M-E-O actually has some game. He was impressive in a recent ABCD Camp, among the most prestigious high school basketball camps in the country. I can’t imagine Romeo is going to be able to step on the court without hearing jokes about his beef with Bow Wow, or his cheesy lyrics. After all, his biggest hit came at the age of 11, when Romeo insisted that he didn’t need a girlfriend. Maybe he’s fagging out. Right Billy?

Clearly, hoops runs in the Miller genes. Romeo’s father, rap mogul Master P, is also a good basketball player. He had two NBA contracts, one with the Hornets in 1998 and another with the Raptors in 1999. He’s also well known for his time with the semi-pro San Diego Stingrays. After a clash with the coach, Master P purchased the team just so he could fire the coach. Wouldn’t it be entertaining to see Romeo engineer Tim Floyd’s firing? Nevermind, that’s already covered.

One of the nicest runs made in this year’s NCAA Tourmanent has been by the USC Trojans, who dominated Kevin Durant and Texas to advance to the Sweet 16. Throughout much of the year, I’ve heard that this is just the beginning for SC hoops; that things would only get better with the arrival of phenom OJ Mayo. After his final high school game, there’s a few things that are obvious about Mayo. He’s a ridiculous talent. But he’s also a ridiculous ego.

Mayo told USC coach Tim Floyd to not worry about recruiting because Mayo’s name would do the recruiting for the Trojans. He also refused to give the head coach his phone number, saying that he would call Floyd instead. Mayo is bringing some definite baggage to SC so let’s hope he keeps his head on straight. Maybe he’ll stop showing up the opposition after a huge dunk also.