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What's a Southern Miss? I've heard of Southern Methodist. And Southern Meth Addicts, but I've never heard of Southern Miss.

This only goes to show how worthless the bowl system is. I mean this is what we're preserving by not having a playoff? Troy vs. something called Southern Miss and Hawai'i vs. Notre Dame? How about a playoff and you can keep these bowls.

#1 - Southern Mississippi, Brett Favre's alma mater. Used to be pretty good before they got in some trouble with the NCAA.

Hey Sandy Underpants; I guess this means that UCLA should stand for Universal Classless Losing Attitude, and the rest of Pac-it-in 10 should just blow away. For all you who haven't left your mother's basement yet, the PAC 10 is looking a lot like the old Southwest Conference, when it was Texas, Arkansas, and the six-or-seven midgets. Did we really see Arizona State with a chance for a bowl this year? As for USC, no one benefits more from a crappy conference than the Trojans; yes, they're great, but West Coast football hasn't been at the front of the pack since Elway was at Stanford. (PS - CuseFan, obviously you remember Bobby Collins like I do; he blew up two SMU's in one career.)

Nope, I'm going on vague second-hand reports. I didn't start following college football until I moved to Syracuse in the early 1990s (and left upstate NY in the early 2000s).

For reference, Pac 10 teams in the final BCS top 25 (note that this was before the bowls)
2008 - #5 USC, #17 Oregon
2007 - #7 USC, #11 Arizona State (and Oregon was a top-10 team until their QB went down with an injury)
2006 - #5 USC, #18 Cal, #22 Oregon State, #25 UCLA
2005 - #1 USC, #5 Oregon, #16 UCLA
2004 - #1 USC, #5 Cal, #19 Arizona State
2003 - #3 USC, #16 Washington State

(for 2002 and earlier the BCS only published their top 15)
2002 - #4 USC, #6 Washington State
2001 - #4 Oregon, #12 Washington State, #15 Washington
2000 - #4 Washington, #6 Oregon State, #10 Oregon
1999 - none
1998 - #5 UCLA, #7 Arizona

Notice all that 'Washington' and 'Washington State' showing up in 1998-2002? That's why playing the Huskies and Cougars is not the equivalent of your typical SEC/Big XII non-conference cupcakes.

CuseFan - Please note the disparity of playing no greater than three ranked teams in any given year until the bowls, such as what Oregon has done in each of your examples. They may have picked up some quality wins, but the bottom half of their schedule has included Stanford, Arizona, and usually a WAC team (sometimes better than several PAC-10s). And, PS, note that Washington and Washington State have essentially fallen off the map in the last five years. Comparable teams in the Big 12 would be Texas A&M or Baylor. Conclusion - There are cupcakes in every schedule, but when the conference schedule itself contains no less than six games against ranked teams, you might be forgiven the occasional snoozer. When your conference schedule has the snoozers built-in, you can't make a case for superior play. All the best - Dad84

You do realize that except for the Big 12 south teams, that's true of the entire top 15, right? And this year isn't some kind of bizarre statistical aberration in that regard, either.

Well taken, CuseFan. But, more important than the one-year explosion of talent in the Big 12 is the prospect that, except for Kansas and Ok. State, the powers that be in the league are very young (Texas, TTech, OU, Missouri, and Nebraska), and this level of play may be in for a relatively long haul. And, although I can't put the Pac-10 in the same mediocre soup as the ACC or the Big Least, You would hope that Cal and the Oregons would take USC off their perch, with perhaps a two-loss league season one of these days?

QUOTE(#1):

Originally posted 12:36 AM ET  12.17 by Sandy Underpants

What's a Southern Miss? I've heard of Southern Methodist. And Southern Meth Addicts, but I've never heard of Southern Miss.This only goes to show how worthless the bowl system is.

Wow ... way to show your ignorance there Sandy. You might want to break out an atlas sometime. There's actually more to the United States than California. (Thank God)

QUOTE(#8):

Originally posted 05:10 PM ET  12.18 by BoroEagle

Wow ... way to show your ignorance there Sandy. You might want to break out an atlas sometime. There's actually more to the United States than California. (Thank God)

Way to fall for the bs of the troll known as Sandy UP. Sandy is a Penn State fan that his realized that his conference is weak and pathetic. As such, he takes it out on others. He takes on any characterization necessary to be involved in some sort of text war.

in other words, troll.

take a minute, breathe and ignore. Paterno's poo-swah will be beaten to a pulp in the game of the roses. spread, uh no. hd, definitely not unless you are looking through those light gathering lenses.

This is the one of the 6-6 teams I think is actually good!
You can't call this an upset by the way.
Score:35-17 Southern Miss

You know Southern Miss almost shut out East Carolina late in the season. 21-3 was the score. If Sandy has any brains, she'd realize that East Carolina won Conference USA, beat Virginia Tech, as well as upset another top ranked team early in the year. I must confess, I am a Southern Miss graduate who actually lives in the Los Angeles area now (for the last 6 years in fact). I can tell all of you, if you think people here in California really understand football.....you are sorely mistaken. It's amazing how ignorant fans are out here. They think they are entitled to be huge USC or UCLA fans because of where they live. Half of them don't even understand what constitutes a first down. I take offense when folks like Sandy voice the arrogant thoughts of their own ignorance. What's Southern Miss? BRETT FAVRE's alma mater!

QUOTE(#2):

Originally posted 10:40 AM ET  12.17 by CuseFanInSoCal

#1 - Southern Mississippi, Brett Favre's alma mater. Used to be pretty good before they got in some trouble with the NCAA.

I didn't realize they got in trouble w/NCAA anytime recently. I thought they just had a few lackluster years then ill-advisedly fired Bower.