Thank you, Los Angeles Sports Council, for brightening my day.
At an awards ceremony on Sunday night, the L.A. Sports Council announced its top 10 moments of 2006.
UCLA and USC were both on the list twice.
But UCLA was listed both times for victories, while USC was mentioned both times for, well, losing in dramatic and thrilling fashion.
At No. 4 on the list was 13-9 ““ which is how that UCLA-USC football beatdown should be identified from now on: simply by saying the score, nothing else is needed.
No. 5 was the UCLA men’s basketball team’s run to the Final Four last year. The way the Bruins look this year, a similar entry might be on the list for 2007’s top moments as well.
And at No. 2 was the classic Rose Bowl game in which Texas beat USC and ended the Trojans’ dynasty-like national championship streak at one. Vince Young will forever be a hero in Westwood, even though he’s probably never been here.
So 2006 was quite a year ““ two great UCLA moments and two great USC moments for Bruin fans.
It’s clearly much better to be a Bruin fan than a Trojan fan right now.
On top of the 2006 events, there was Arron Afflalo’s clutch shot at the Galen Center (which is a waste of a new building, since Trojan fans only show up when the Bruins go across town and help them fill it). And, for what it’s worth, UCLA has a commanding 35-10 lead over USC in the Lexus Gauntlet right now, meaning the severed hand will likely return to Westwood.
Well, at least USC still has positive memories of Reggie Bush, even though he showed to the nation how little class he has when he did that unnecessary flip into the end zone during the second quarter of Sunday’s NFC Championship Game, which the Saints ended up losing anyway, and by a large margin, 39-14.
The 2007 Pac-10 football schedule was released last week, which normally isn’t very significant news.
But for once, the Pac-10 is doing something to try to boost its exposure to the rest of the nation.
For the first time in a long time, the Pac-10 came to a television agreement with ESPN, which, as the dominant television sports network, has a lot of power over the way conferences and teams are widely known and perceived.
If your conference isn’t on ESPN, odds are sports fans nationally won’t know much about your teams. And in football, where two-thirds of the BCS formula is based on human votes, perception is extremely important.
Two games are scheduled to be shown by ESPN on Thursdays, which breaks from the tradition of the Pac-10 being one of the few conferences to almost never schedule games on a non-Saturday.
To the uninformed that might not seem like a big deal, but look at what having two Thursday games did to the Big East conference. On back-to-back Thursdays, ESPN showed Louisville-West Virginia and Louisville-Rutgers, which were some of the most anticipated, hyped and watched games of the season. Prior to 2006, the Big East was perceived as being the weakest of the BCS conferences and a laughingstock compared to the best conferences.
But last year, suddenly the Big East was respected ““ of course, partly to what happened on the field, but also because ESPN allowed the conference to be more readily seen and its teams more hyped up.
With any luck, 2007’s two Pac-10 Thursday games, Oregon-Arizona and USC-Arizona State, will be meaningful and thrilling.
The new Pac-10 schedule also moved UCLA’s game against USC to Dec. 1, the final Saturday of the season, just like the in past few years. Although I was originally opposed to the rivalry game being played on such a late date, I now see that this helps build up the game even more.
I still maintain this is worse for the student-athletes’ education, as their season runs up to finals week. Of course, few conference commissioners, school presidents and athletic directors ever choose student-athletes’ education over television revenue.
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The defending NCAA champion UCLA men’s volleyball team plays its first home match tonight, after playing its first seven matches away from Pauley Pavilion.
Only three of the starters from that championship squad are back, and this year’s team is only 3-4 (1-3 in conference), but I’ll never count a UCLA volleyball team out again. After last year’s team started out with a 5-7 record in conference play, them winning the national championship was the farthest thing from my mind.
The early road games, helping the team start slowly, are probably part of coach Al Scates’ master plan, backloading the schedule with home games to help boost his team’s momentum heading into the conference playoffs.
So even if the team loses tonight to No. 5 Pepperdine, don’t be discouraged. The Bruins might have their opponents right where they want them.
E-mail Quiñonez at gquinonez@media.ucla.edu.