To The Rose Bowl

Garry Paskwietz WeAreSC.com

Well, it's a done deal. The USC Trojans will be returning to the Rose Bowl (again) and our opponent will be the Fighting Illini from Illinois.

Over the next month we will hear stories about the reclamation job that Ron Zook has done in turning the team around from a 2-10 season in 2006 to a Rose Bowl participant the following year. We will hear of a quarterback named Juice. We will be reminded of the fact that the Illini are making only their fifth ever trip to Pasadena, while the Trojans return for the fourth time in five years.

It should all be good stuff and, to hear Coach Pete Carroll and his players, it will be a big deal.

"We're thrilled to be going to the Rose Bowl," Carroll said. "Frankly, I like that it's Pac-10-Big Ten. We're fired up."

"It's an honor to be playing in the Rose Bowl against Illinois," said freshman Everson Griffen. "We're very excited to be a part of this game."

I'm sure the Illini are a quality team, they wouldn't have beaten Ohio State at the Horseshoe if they weren't, but for some reason I just feel like the Rose Bowl missed on this one simply because they wanted to put together a Pac-10 vs Big-10 match-up. Don't get me wrong, nobody is more in favor of the Pac-10 and Big-10 playing in the Rose Bowl than me. However, it should be the Pac-10 champions vs the Big-10 champions. It was the Rose Bowl Committee who made the decision many years ago to join the BCS and give up the best tradition in all of sports but when they made that decision they elected to go along with this jumbled mess we call the BCS. Based upon that, you can't try to have the best of both worlds (the Pac-10 vs Big-10 AND the BCS) yet this is what the Rose Bowl tried to do.

For instance, how can the Rose Bowl committee sit there and justify selecting Illinois over Missouri? The Tigers are ranked #6 in the BCS poll, the Illini are ranked #13. Missouri lost twice, both times to #4 ranked Oklahoma. Illinois lost to Missouri (oh, the irony), to Iowa and to Michigan. Both are teams who are experiencing their best seasons in years so their fans would both have travelled in droves. I'm not trying to knock the Illini, I just don't understand how this process works and I don't feel like we got the best possible match-up for this game. Perhaps as the coming weeks unfold, and we learn more about this team, I will feel differently, but right now this is how I feel. The Rose Bowl used to be the end all-be all. There was no doubt about our goal each and every single season, to be in Pasadena on New Years Day. And when we got there, we knew we would be facing a team that ran through the Big-10 gauntlet and emerged as a champion. It was glorious, it was the Granddaddy of them All. Now, it's simply another big bowl game. Granted, it's a great bowl game, but it's just not the same.

The good news is that this doesn't change how I feel about this Trojan team and where we stand right now. I'm proud as hell to be the Pac-10 rep in the Rose Bowl, happy to hear so many of the national media members talking about how we are a team that is peaking at this point and playing good football. Do we deserve to be in the national title game? No, probably not. In my heart of hearts, I can't make that argument. But I know we're a good football team and I know I would take my chances lining up against any team in America right now.

This has become such a familiar feeling in December for the past six years under Pete Carroll. When it gets to November and December, the Trojans simply slide into a mode of football that is undeniable in terms of how successful it has been. The victory over UCLA yesterday may not have been the prettiest, by our standards now, but it was tremendously effective and the game was pretty much well in hand by the middle of the third quarter. One could argue (in fact, I would be one of the ones to argue) that USC should've been able to put the game away earlier but that has been one of the standard modes for this USC team in the 2007 season, they seem to sputter offensively more than in years past yet in part because of a great defense that has played tremendously well lately, it did not prevent us from pulling out our fourth victory in a row and capturing yet another Pac-10 title.

"Six straight Pac-10 titles, man, that's a big deal," said Coach Pete Carroll. "Last year was the first time anyone had ever done five straight so we're kind of staking a new claim by stretching it to six. I like the long term consistency that the mark represents, it's not just about winning it one or two times, it's about being a team that can win for a long time and that is one of our goals, to win here forever."

Well, the first step towards winning forever will be winning the next game and as of today we know who the opponent will be for that next game. Bring on the Illini. Tell them to come on out from Champaign and be prepared to battle against a team that will be ready for them. A team that will be ready to prove, once again, that by the time the end of the season rolls around that they are playing as well as any football team in the nation.