For the first time in years, it’s been great for UCLA fans
to follow USC football.
UCLA just might be the best collegiate football team in the city
… with the amateur status of a couple of the USC players suddenly
called into question.
Just look at all of the potential scandals and recent bad news
surrounding the Trojan program.
In the last couple of weeks, it came out that Reggie
Bush’s family may have lived in a house that was paid for by
a financial consultant who was looking to represent Bush once the
running back went pro. And just this past weekend, Bush was passed
on being drafted as the first pick overall, as rumors suggested
that his agents couldn’t come to a contract agreement and
negotiated him right out of the top spot.
Saturday, Matt Leinart’s father told the Los Angeles Times
that USC wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett paid only $650 of a
$3,866-a-month lease on an upscale apartment, which might
constitute an NCAA violation.
Leinart was the token player in the NFL Draft’s green
room, but his stock plummeted, falling all the way to 10th
overall.
And there’s more.
USC quarterback Mark Sanchez was arrested for alleged sexual
assault. Sanchez is the third Trojan football player in the last
three years to have
been under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department
for sexual assault.
Wow. That’s quite a past couple of weeks for USC.
And it might sound bad for me to say this, but as a UCLA fan,
this is fun to watch.
Don’t get me wrong. If there was no wrongdoing committed
on the part of Bush, Leinart’s father, Jarrett or Sanchez, I
hope they are cleared of everything.
But watching the rivals across town dominate the way they have
for the past few years, it’s nice to see some shady
happenings cloud that program. It makes USC’s success seem
less legitimate.
Sure USC won one (and only one) national championship and
finished No. 2 in two other seasons. Sure the Trojans had that
almost never-ending winning streak.
But if coach Pete Carroll’s program broke any major rules,
you can throw all the records out the window. If Bush or Jarrett
are found to be receiving benefits that nullify their amateur
status, you could argue USC only won those games because they
cheated.
In the most extreme possible outcome of the ongoing
investigations, USC could be forced to forfeit its games from last
season.
For UCLA, that would mean a reversal of the outcome of the
UCLA-USC game, and, the end of that horrible streak. The streak
would instantly change from USC winning seven in a row to UCLA
winning one.
It might not be the best way to beat USC, but hey, I, and many
UCLA fans, would take it.
All of this controversy, more than former Texas quarterback
Vince Young’s performance in the Rose Bowl, could be the
beginning of the end for the USC football dynasty.
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UCLA baseball’s Dave Huff pulled an amazing feat on
Saturday rarely seen in modern-day college baseball. In an era when
starting pitchers are taken out earlier and earlier, Huff pitched
10 innings, which has to be one of the better single-game
performances by a UCLA athlete this year. The Bruins still lost
though in the 11th inning.
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College football is getting even more mediocre. Last week, the
NCAA approved a proposal to allow 6-6 teams to qualify for bowl
games.
Also, four new bowl games are being added for next season,
bringing the total to 31. That’s 62 out of 119 teams
qualifying for a bowl game, meaning that it’s entirely
possible that there aren’t enough teams with even 6-6 records
to fill all the sports.
More likely though, is that we’ll see a bunch of bowl
games featuring teams with 6-6 records ““ bowl games that lack
greatness and are also incredibly boring to watch. All of this
means that yet again, a playoff system won’t be added to make
the nation’s most exciting sport even better ““ just so
some 6-6 teams can feel good about themselves.
Would you feel good if your team finished 6-6? Of course not,
because 6-6 is mediocre, not great.