Many of the roads surrounding campus remain under construction, but the 2008 USC football team has a clear path to the BCS championship.

And the Trojans might not have to beat Ohio State on Sept. 13 to do it.

Here’s the basic logic:

Four of the consensus top six teams in the country — Georgia, Florida, Oklahoma and Missouri — play in the two toughest conferences, the SEC and Big 12. Not only must they survive the brutal grind of league play, but they also have to participate in a league championship game.

The Sooners and Tigers faced each other last year. The Bulldogs and Gators always face off during the regular season. That’s at least one guaranteed loss for half of those teams. And you have to figure at least one more stumble in conference games when your conference slate is littered with projected top-25 teams.

In short, the SEC and Big 12 national-title contenders will knock one another out of contention.

That leaves us with Ohio State and USC, who have a much better chance to run through their conferences without a hiccup than Georgia, Florida, Oklahoma or Missouri.

The Big Ten and Pac-10 aren’t pushovers — they are the third- and fourth-best conferences in the land, according to my friend Pete Fiutak, the founder of CollegeFootballNews.com and the man who knows more about this sport than anyone I know — but they aren’t filled with potential land mines at every step.

The Pac-10 lacks a definitive No. 2, unless you’re buying the Arizona State hype (and I’m not). A lot of folks like Oregon to finish second, and a case could be made for Cal as well. That reminds me of the line about teams with quarterback controversies: If you’ve got two, you don’t have one.

Further fodder for the Trojans going 9-0 in the Pac-10: They face all three of those teams at the Coliseum.

(Yes, I know, the Stanford game last year was at home, too. For the purpose of this argument, I’m chalking that up as a once-in-a-decade fluke.)

The Buckeyes come calling less than two months from now in the latest Biggest Regular Season Game in the History of the Universe. If the Trojans win — and don’t suffer any unforeseen upset losses elsewhere — they’re virtual shoo-ins for the Jan. 8 BCS title game in Miami.

If the Trojans lose … they still can make it.

As mentioned previously, it’ll be difficult for anyone to emerge from the SEC or Big 12 with fewer than two defeats. And in lieu of a perfect record, whose résumé would look better than USC’s — featuring just one loss to possibly unbeaten Ohio State?

That would set up USC-OSU II for the national championship (a bowl game that should be played in Pasadena, but that’s another argument for another time).

No matter the outcome of the first meeting, you’d have to side with Pete Carroll in that one. He’s 5-1 in BCS games, with the lone loss coming to Vince Young, by a field goal. Ohio State’s Jim Tressel is on a two-game BCS losing streak, by a combined score of 79-38.

Posted in: Football • National rivals • Ohio State |

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