USC is the best...blah blah blah

Thanks a lot, Penn State. Thanks for once again subjecting us to the question "Is USC the best team in the country?" Check any sports site, and I bet you'll find an article with this theme? Don't believe me? Ask Josh Peter of Yahoo! Sports or anyone that covers college football for ESPN. Now, I realize that they do this partially because they have so much time and space to fill. However, I have real beef with it for purely logical reasons.

I do know that it's a very good team, but I don't know for sure if USC is the best team in the country. Here's the deal though. Every year, the college football "experts" tell us that the Big 10 is a subpar conference with no great teams. They put the Big 10 maybe slightly ahead of the Big (L)East, or even the ACC. Then, come January, the same experts rave that USC is the best team in the country after the Trojans beat the Big 10 champion.

It's utterly fallacious to say on the one hand that the Big 10 is a poor conference and on the other hand that a win over the Big 10 champion conclusively proves that USC is the best team in the country. Either way, the message these "experts" really send is that we should put no credence in their opinions. (Props to Dennis Dodd of CBS Sportsline for not falling into line with the rest of the slavering Pete Carroll sycophants). Frankly, that's probably the best advice any of us can take on the whole matter.