I just turned on ESPN and they were slamming USC and Bush (anyone named Bush has to be suspect).

My question to all (especially those who disagreed with me on the polls) is

If USC is ranked as the #1 sleaziest program in college football are they going to feel like they have to live up to expectations and cheat even more next year… or will they underachieve and only get caught on minor violations?

http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/58785

You can follow the directions and magically the troll’s posts will look like this:

MoreNCS_are_ignored – troll post blocked

Problem solved, who cares what she says?

When you speak of collapse, do you mean USC’s collapse last year from a pre-season ranked Top 10 team to a non-ranked team?

Or do you mean USC’s lost to Stanford — again? As for the earlier lost to Stanford at home, was not USC a 45-point favorite?

Or do you mean USC’s inability to perform and win in the State of Oregon over how many years?

When did USC win a National Championship? And do not count the one that was taken away due to cheating.

You should be the last to talk about perpetual collapse!

It is not naive to think that rankings in WEEK 1, and really for the next few weeks, have little, if any, meaning. Until teams have a body of work under their belts, it really doesn’t matter what they are ranked. That was my point, and I stand by it.

In my opinion, it would harm our program more to be overhyped this season (ala Washington and Stanfurd) than to be underappreciated and to exceed everyone’s expectations. It will not harm our program in the eyes of any recruit if we continue to hammer our oponents throughout the season, and doing so will also ensure that we will be ranked, that our highlights will appear on Sportscenter, and that we get national exposure that helps us with recruits. We have to win the games to get there, though. There is no free lunch (except for those at U$C, and, as we’ve seen, that eventually caught up to them).

This isn’t about superstition. This is about performing and convincing people that we can beat many of the teams currently ranked among the top 25. I have faith that we can have a solid season, and that we will surprise people for how good we are. Given the fact that we did not meet expectations for a couple years prior, however, the media is in “show me” mode for our ranking. Time to show ‘em.

Is someone saying that perhaps Tedford’s style of coaching makes his higher rated teams complacent?

To the poster who said only the FINAL rankings mean anything – I disagree. If some recruit sees us on his radar, he may start following us sooner and really feel a bond with our team as it progresses during the season. The TV exposure makes for fans and recruits, whether this is something Tedford is good at – who knows? For MOST schools the tv exposure helps with MONEY, FANS and RECRUITING.

Finally to answer another poster. Of course I have Cal license plate holders. When I challenged the president of our school board in an election a few summers ago. I wore my “Cal” hat to each of the 2200+ doors I walked (summers are horrible here). I teased all of those with UT and A&M decals, banners, and insulted those who still had GWB Bush items.

I still won!