Beavers Dam > Walls of Troy

Well, that was exciting and unexpected.

OSU just held by their fingernails to down #1 USC 27-21.

Congrats to the Beavers and the only remaining member of the Chaminade Pac-10 contingent.

A few thoughts on this development:

The next 49-72 hours of the college football world will revolve around this story. Mostly because its Thursday and hence its the only story available, but also because it will bring up a lot of questions about National Championship Game implications. Which I personally think is over dramatic, because besides USC there are only a handful of teams who were in the mix for the BCS NCG, and they mostly all came from two conferences: the SEC and the Big 12. I consider Penn State a legitimate Dark Horse candidate at this point, but they still have a tough row to hoe. Only one team from each conference can make it, so the real question going into today was whether USC could elbow its way in ahead of one of the two conference champions.

The Trojans are now on the outside looking in, but its waaaayyyy too early to write them off. They'll still win their share of games, probably repeat as Pac-10 champs, earn a BCS berth of some kind, and may yet figure in the MNC hunt. Given what we saw last year, where each week was a round of Russian Roulette for the top teams, I don't think anything can be taken for granted. The SEC teams will all beat each other up. So will the Big-12 teams. If SC can run the table (and you better believe they can), they'll likely still be one of three or four teams in consideration for the two BCS NCG spots at the end of the year.

The whole "overrated" theme which makes my ears bleed and my brain want to explode is about to hit full cresendo. The following things will be called "overrated" by someone: USC, OSU, Penn State, the Pac-10, the Big 10, the SEC, the Big 12, chocolate chip cookies, golden retriever puppies, Mark Sanchez, the USC Defense, and bubble gum. Its enough to make me dislike football, which is saying something.

The funny thing is that last year, after SC lost to Stanford, it was a major blight upon them. Whenever their name came up the same thing was said "Well they lost to Stanford". It was said with the kind of contempt that is usually reserved for calling someone a pedophile. Whats especially funny is that OSU has, just a few weeks ago, lost to Stanford and now beaten SC. But while OSU will get praised for their win and SC's criticism will be tempered if OSU has a successful season, technically this is a team which lost to the Cardinal the same as USC last year. The inconsistency is funny, if not frustrating to those of us who value a little consistency in our football yammering.

Pete Carroll's got some work to do, but give it some time and I believe his team will be back in the hunt.