YAY!!!

I just went to an ATM and got my first “new” $20 bill, with the purty colors. :)

Trojans 43, Huskies 23, final. Hurrah! Meanwhile Northern Illinois is losing late. In other news, BUFFALO WON!!!

Woohoo! It’s 43-17 Trojans!

It’s USC 29, Washington 17 near the end of the third quarter. At left in this photo is my classmate and fellow Trojan Hall alum Brandon Guererro.

It’s 20-14 USC at halftime. I’m still en route to the bar, thanks to absurdly long subway and bus delays… :(

Uh-oh: Washington has jumped out to an early 7-0 lead over USC.

The game isn’t televised locally, so I think I’m going to head over to the Ship of Fools bar on the Upper East Side, where the USC alumni club meets every weekend to watch the game on satellite TV. That will probably mean fewer updates.

Fight back and fight on, Trojans!

UPDATE: USC has rallied to make it 14-7, and they’re threatening to score again, as the first quarter winds down. Yay! I’m leaving for the bar now.

It looks like I picked the wrong weekend to hang out in Evanston, Illinois! Perennial Big 10 cellar-dweller Northwestern — where Adrienne goes to grad school — is stunning #20 Wisconsin, 17-6 with less than with less than five minutes to go in the game. Go Wildcats!

Meanwhile, another big upset could be brewing in Athens, Georgia, where unranked, 3-4 Alabama-Birmingham (a.k.a. UAB) is beating #4 Georgia, 13-10 in the third. Wait! News flash! It’s 13-13. Hang in there, UAB! A Georgia loss would be huge for USC’s Sugar Bowl hopes.

One more game I’m following closely: in East Hartford, UConn is trailing Akron in a close game. It’s 31-28 through three quarters.

UPDATES: Northwestern won!!! UConn has taken a 35-34 lead. Georgia is now leading, 16-13, but UAB has the ball. Notre Dame has mounted a huge comeback and now leads Boston College, 25-24, with three minutes left… but BC has the ball, and is already in field-goal territory.

MORE UPDATES: Boston College got the field goal, and Notre Dame’s final drive fell a second or two short of a chance for a field goal of their own. So BC wins, 27-25. And it looks like Georgia will survive, too. Meanwhile UConn is driving, down by two with under two minutes to go.

SECOND-TO-LAST UPDATE (PROBABLY): Georgia wins, 16-13. Still, that’s not a very impressive victory. If USC dominates Washington, methinks we could overtake Georgia for #4 in the AP poll — which would, in turn, help us in the BCS.

UConn is still driving with 48 seconds left… just converted a huge 4th-and-10 to stay alive…

OKAY, I LIED: So this is the second-to-last update on this post. UConn is down by two, with five seconds left, with a 28-year field-goal attempt forthcoming. Hold your breath…

FINAL UPDATE (REALLY): YAY!!! UConn’s kicker — Matt Nuzie, a redshirt freshman from Trumbull, Connecticut — had missed a potential go-ahead field goal a few minutes earlier, but he redeemed himself with a perfect kick as time expired. UConn wins, 38-37!!! And what a fantastic drive by Dan Orlovsky & co. to set up the winning field goal! Way to go, Huskies!

And now… GO TROJANS! (Future football updates will be covered in a new post, above.)

For USC football fans, today’s top priority obviously is to root for the Trojans, ranked #7 in the BCS, against Pac-10 rival Washington. That game, in Seattle, begins at 3:30 PM Eastern time. Beat the Huskies! (Hi Dave. :)

But there are other important games for USC fans today, too, all over the nation. Here is a summary, with boldface text marking the teams that loyal Trojans should root for:

Root against USC’s BCS rivals

Indiana vs. #6 Ohio State, underway

UAB vs. #4 Georgia, underway

Wake Forest vs. #5 Florida State, 3:30 PM

Colorado vs. #1 Oklahoma, 7:00 PM

(Maybe there’s not too much hope in any of those games, but hey, you never know. We’re already 1-0 in these sorts of games this week, thanks to West Virginia’s Wednesday win over Virginia Tech.)

Root for USC’s non-conference opponents

Notre Dame vs. Boston College, underway

BYU vs. UNLV, 7:00 PM

Auburn vs. LSU, 7:45 PM

Hawaii vs. UTEP, 12:05 AM

(Why? Because these outcomes would help boost our all-important strength of schedule.)

Root for outcomes that are just generally good for humanity

Buffalo vs. Ohio, underway (because every losing streak has to end sometime, and this is probably Buffalo’s best chance for a win this season)

Northern Illinois vs. Bowling Green, 4:00 PM (because the BCS system needs to be undermined by an undefeated mid-major team)

Marlins vs. Yankees, 7:35 PM (because the Yankees are the Evil Empire and Derek Jeter is an annoying pretty boy)