People keep saying how USC still has a shot at winning the national championship, but it will be tainted because they aren’t playing in the Sugar Bowl for the BCS “national championship.” My response to that is: BcS.

If No. 1 USC handles No. 4 Michigan, which has the talent to play with anyone in the nation, and No. 3 Oklahoma squeaks past No. 2 LSU. How can anyone in the nation take the coach’s poll seriously when the coaches will immediately, without a vote, give their title to the winner of the Sugar Bowl even though they already agreed that USC was No. 1?

The impartial AP voters, who didn’t sell their souls to the devil (the BCS), will obviously vote USC No. 1 if the Trojans win. The coaches? Oh they would vote USC No. 1 as well, except for the fact that they can’t vote for No. 1. The American Football Coaches Association has agreed to give its national title to the winner of the BCS title game. That agreement will go against the wishes of close to 60-percent of the coaches who have USC ranked No. 1.

So while USC might technically win a split-national championship with a Rose Bowl win, they would really be the undisputed national champion if the coaches were allowed to vote in their final poll.

CARSON PALMER (2002) - 288-of-458, 62.9%, 3,639 yds, 32 TD, 10 int
USC RECORD: 10-2 (No. 5)
All-Pac-10 Co-Offensive Player of the Year
All Pac-10 First Team
Other post-season awards: Heisman Trophy, lJohnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, Pop Warner Award, National Player of the Year, All-American first team, Davey O’Brien Award finalist, Walter Camp Award finalist

MATT LEINART (2003) - 232-of-368, 63.0%, 3,229 yds, 35 TD, 9 int
USC RECORD: 11-1 (No. 1)
All-Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year
All Pac-10 First Team
Other post-season awards: ?

Fight on, USC fans, there’s a new sign for you. Put that middle finger down — your team is No. 1.

I know you might want to keep up the bird and wave it directly at the BCS, but for now, don’t let any computer or computer geek take this moment away from you.

For the first time since 1979, the USC Trojans are No. 1 in the country. USC fans have to go all the way back to the undefeated team of 1972 to remember a Christmas when their Trojans were the undisputed No. 1 team.

But the Trojans have been anything but gifted this holiday season.

The scenario that the Trojans face as they wake up this morning is as absurd as it is close to becoming a harsh reality. It’s the nightmare scenario that no BCS official ever thought would happen.

The No. 1 team in the Associated Press and the Coaches Poll at the end of the season will not be going to the national championship game. It’s the most embarrassing moment in the BCS’s controversial six-year history.

With the human polls giving their votes to the Trojans and the computers expected to push a national title game between No. 2 LSU and No. 3 Oklahoma, it would be easy to label this struggle as man versus machine, but don’t look at USC coach Pete Carroll to be throwing any computer out of his window in anger.

“The one thing I don’t like is blaming the computers,” Carroll said. “I don’t think that’s fair at all because some person made up the computers. Somewhere, someone made up the program. That is the guy that we should be blaming.”

If Carroll doesn’t sound too disappointed about the possibility of taking his outright Pac-10 Champions to the Rose Bowl, one needs only go back to Dec. 15, 2000, the day he was announced as the team’s coach and outlined his dream for the future.

“Our team goal is simple here,” he said during his first press conference. “What is the goal of all Pac-10 teams? It’s to win the Rose Bowl and that’s a beautiful thing. It’s so clear, we know exactly what we are shooting for, exactly what lays out there.

“At this time to dream about a Rose Bowl victory or to talk about all the things we are going to do, talk is cheap right now. What we have to do is we have to get to work. We have to develop a work attitude and habits that will take us to where we want to go, that will take us to where we dream.”

So while it might not be as sweet as some had expected, for the Trojans, dreams do come true.