The USC Trojans are ranked #1 in the preseason coaches’ poll, with 45 of the 60 first-place votes. And of course, John David Booty is #1 in Heisman hype.

LSU is ranked #2, Florida #3, Texas #4 and Michigan #5. Rutgers is #17, Boise State #23, Hawaii #24, and Notre Dame tied with South Carolina for, effectively, #29. Speaking of South Carolina, hapless Duke got a vote, again, thanks to Steve Spurrier.

Fight on Trojans, Beat the Vandals! Goooo Irish, Beeeeat Jackets!

&otStewart Mandel asks the question.

I’ve expressed my opinion about retroactive forfeits before, and that applies to the Sooners as well:

I hate the idea of retroactive forfeits. I think they’re dumb, dumb, dumb. We all know that UMass was in the 1996 Final Four; we all know that the Fab Five played in two national championship games. Removing the banners and altering the record books doesn’t change history, and pretending it does has always seemed rather Orwellian to me. … [A]ltering the results of games that were played three years ago flies in the face of common sense, doesn’t it?

As I clarified in a later post:

I’ve already expressed my opinion about the Orwellian absurdism of these retroactive forfeits. I suppose I can see the logic behind it if the team knew at the time that it was using an ineligible player… but to declare a player ineligible long after the fact, because of conduct that the team knew nothing about, and then to change the results of the team’s games on that basis? That strikes me as totally ridiculous and lame. It would be a different situation if the allegations involved something that changed the competitive balance of the game(s) in question (e.g., performance-enhancing drugs, gambling on the outcome, etc.)… but if not, and if the team was itself innocent of any deliberate wrongdoing (or willful blindness), then I’d say the punishment doesn’t fit the crime… especially given that the punishment does violence to common sense by literally rewriting history. (And for the record: ;Well, what else can we do?” is not a valid reason to impose an otherwise unsupportable punishment.)

Beyond that, I’m not sure what else there is to say, except to remind Trojan-haters that the apparent unfairness and hypocrisy in the NCAA’s actions (and inactions) isn’t the result of some grand pro-USC conspiracy — it’s quite obviously the result of the different circumstances of the two cases, specifically relating to the fact that the NCAA lacks the power to force Reggie Bush to talk, now that he’s in the NFL. Stewart Mandel explained this well back in May:

It’s not that the NCAA is stalling — it’s that it’s flailing. Through this case, we’re seeing first-hand just how limited the organization’s enforcement powers really are. If Bush were a current student-athlete, the NCAA could hold him out of competition until the matter was resolved. It could also sanction him if he failed to cooperate with investigators (much like it did Maurice Clarett for lying to investigators). With Bush being a professional football player, however, the NCAA holds no more authority over him than it does over you or I. The same goes for other, non-university parties.

Not only are Bush and his family declining to speak with investigators, but, according to reports, they also recently reached a settlement with Michael Michaels — the man whose house the Bush clan supposedly lived in rent-free — that specifically prohibits him from talking to investigators. In other words, they bought him off. And Ornstein, obviously, has no motivation to cooperate — he’s going to do whatever it takes to protect his client’s name.

If you look back, nearly every major NCAA infractions case over the past decade — from the Alabama/Albert Means saga in football to the basketball scandals at Michigan (Ed Martin), Ohio State (Jim O’Brien), Minnesota (an academic advisor writing papers) and Georgia (Jim Harrick/Tony Cole) — has included the presence of at least one voluntary whistle-blower. More often than not, they’ve also involved local or federal litigation that produced subpoenaed testimony. The NCAA is almost entirely dependent on others to do its dirty work, and so far, no one has stepped forward to help them on this one.

Earlier this month, Pac-10 enforcement chief Ron Barker told SI.com’s Michael Silver, “This is the first time I’ve encountered anything like this, where all parties — even those who’ve turned against each other — have not cooperated with an investigation.” Translation: They talked to Yahoo!, but they won’t talk to us.

(Long-delayed hat tip: BK.)

P.S. How must Oregon feel about all this? The Ducks, 10-1 and ranked #5 in the final BCS standings in 2005, lost 17-14 to Oklahoma in the Holiday Bowl after being denied a BCS bid which they felt they deserved ahead of #4 Ohio State and #6 Notre Dame, both of whom had two losses. Losing to a 7-4 team in the Holiday Bowl after making that argument was embarrassing enough, but now it turns out the Ducks’ Holiday Bowl loss was to nobody, since Oklahoma’s win has been nullified. Oh yeah, and who was Oregon’s only regular-season loss to? The possibly-ineligble USC Trojans! Oregon finished the 2005 season 10-2, and it may end up that both of their losses were to teams who’ll have to forfeit the victories! Heh. If I were a Ducks fan, I’d be barking quacking mad.

Via Andrew, an interview with Kyle Williams, the recently-graduated Trojan offensive linesman who Becky and I tutored his freshman year at ‘SC. Kyle is now a Seattle Seahawk — and, more importantly, a husband and father. Here he is with his wife Jana and daughter Kylie:

Good for him. Kyle is really a great guy, the kind of person you like to see good things happen to.

Former Tennessee great and Super Bowl MVP Peyton Manning hung out with the USC Trojans on Tuesday, treating John David Booty to a 90-minute, one-on-one workout. Peyton (or “Mr. Manning,” as the USC players called him) was at the Coliseum to shoot a TV commercial, and he wanted somebody to practice with afterward. The Trojans were, of course, happy to oblige. (Hat tip: Andrew.)

Charlie Weis announced Friday that Notre Dame will wear green — specifically, Joe Montana Green — against USC on October 20.

The wearing o’ the green will honor the 30th anniversary of the 1977 national-championship team that wore green in a 49-19 victory over USC, with Weis looking on from the student section. Unfortunately for Weis and the Irish, I’m thinking that the similarities between the two games will pretty much end with the color of the jerseys.

(Hat tip: BK.)

Like a half-dozen different people have sent me this, so I figure I’d better actually post it. :) Here you go:

Heh.

Speaking of USC football, the kickoff times for a bunch of their games were announced yesterday, along with the rest of ESPN/ABC’s Saturday Night Football slate.

With the NFL Draft later today, ESPN is comparing last year’s draft class to this year’s, and they just advertised a SportsCenter segment that promises to answer the question of who’s better, Matt Leinart or Brady Quinn.

Umm… didn’t that game already happen? ;)

USC’s Gabe Pruitt will declare for the NBA Draft, but won’t hire an agent, so he could return to the Trojans if he isn’t drafted.

A group of USC students wrestled a gunman to the ground after seeing him carrying a .25-caliber handgun at an off-campus party on Sunday. The gunman, a 19-year-old student named Zao Xing Yang, was arrested and later found to have meth, a .44-caliber revolver, a big wad of cash and “threatening materials” in his apartment.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said, “USC school police responded quickly, as did the Los Angeles Police Department.” So they did, and good for them, but of course, that’s their job. It seems like the real story is the quick response by civilians — specifically, fellow Trojans — that may have defused a violent situation:

LAPD Chief William J. Bratton said the incident occurred about 3 a.m., when students at the party overheard Yang “make intimidating statements to a coed and threatening her with violence.”

“At one point, the host of the party asked Yang to leave,” Bratton said. “Yang began arguing with the host, and that’s when he noticed Yang had a gun in his hand.”

The students restrained Yang until campus security officers and police arrived at the house, in the 2300 block of Portland Street, Bratton said.

This is especially interesting in light of all the recent talk about, arguably, a dearth of Flight 93-style individual action in the Virginia Tech shootings, leading to lots of discussion in the conservative blogosphere about the need for a culture of self-defense. Regardless of where anyone comes down in that debate, or the various gun-control arguments it has helped spawn, I certainly think there’s reason to laud these USC students for what they did. As Matt Wiser, brother of a Trojan but himself an LSU Tiger, wrote in the e-mail tipping me off to this story, “If ever there’s a time to be proud of your school, it’s now.” Indeed.

Heh:

I pulled my last all-nighter on Wednesday. It was one of those special nights where, to stay awake, I gradually forced myself into less and less comfortable positions, moving from my bed to the couch to a hard plastic chair to, finally, the floor. Even on my scratchy old carpet that hasn’t been vacuumed for months, I nearly went down for the count - only the thought of never again having to subject myself to this torture kept me going.

Now that I can count my remaining days of class on one hand, I’ve started itemizing these college experiences into “good riddance!” and “gone so soon?” groups. Those all-nighters, blue books, insufferable summer internships and mornings spent hugging the toilet? Parting is such sweet sorrow. But blissfully warm night games at the Coliseum, chicken nugget Tuesdays at EVK and any game involving red Solo cups? I hardly knew thee.

That’s from a highly entertaining Daily Trojan column by Derek Peters about “The DT’s very sexy mailbag.” Good stuff.

Dammit: “Leading scorer Nick Young will forego his senior season at USC and declare for the NBA draft, according to sources. … [He] plans to make his official announcement on campus early next week.” And there’ll be no going back: “Young has yet to hire an agent but will do so soon, according to one source who is close to the player.”

No word yet on Gabe Pruitt.

The 2007 NFL schedule is out, and perhaps the most anticipated matchup for USC Trojan fans will be the duel between Reggie Bush and Vince Young on Monday Night Football September 24. Alas, the game is in New Orleans, not Tennessee; otherwise, I might have tried to get tickets. Also, Bush’s Saints will face Matt Leinart’s Arizona Cardinals on December 16 in New Orleans.

P.S. And in an intriguing matchup not involving former Trojans, the Buffalo Bills will host the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo-hating ex-Bill Willis McGahee on October 21. The Bills have a bye week before that game, so fans will have a whole two weeks to build up their rage. Bfloblog is already excited.

“DT editors seek sex, drugs and football.” Heh. Sounds about right to me.

Former USC Song Girl Natalie Nelson, who (in)famously cheered for a Texas touchdown in the 2006 Rose Bowl, and former Trojan center Ryan Kalil, a projected first or early second round pick in the NFL Draft later this month, are getting married! (Hat tip: AOL Fanhouse.)

The lovely Ms. Nelson used to date linebacker Dallas Sartz, but apparently decided to switch to the other side of the ball, if you know what I mean. (Actually, I just mean that Kalil is an offensive player, whereas Sartz is a defensive player. But the phraseology still sounds kinda dirty, doesn’t?)

Intriguingly, Sartz and Kalil were two of USC’s four co-captains last season, along with Oscar Lua and John David Booty. Hmm… one co-captain’s girlfriend leaves him for another co-captain? Depending on the timing of Natalie’s decision, I think we may have a whole new explanation for the Trojans’ terrible performance against UCLA last fall: dissension in the ranks! I blame the, uh, blonde-headed ho! (Hi, Don Imus.)

Just kidding, I’m sure Natalie is a perfectly nice girl, and I’m sure it’s purely a coincidence that she’s marrying the one of her two football-player boyfriends who is expected to be drafted higher. ;) I wish her and her soon-to-be hubby nothing but the best. He’d better watch out, though: according to Natalie’s 2006 interview with SI, one of her “five people (living or dead) I’d like to have dinner with” — just two spots below Jesus — is David Beckham, who will soon be moving to Los Angeles to play for the Galaxy. Kalil had better hope he doesn’t get drafted by one of L.A.’s NFL teams! Oh, wait…

P.S. It’s especially impressive that Natalie has turned out so well, given the troubled childhood she recounted in that same interview: “I have literally grown up on the steps of Heritage Hall since I was two years old.” Literally? The poor girl grew up homeless, on the mean streets of USC’s campus, living outside, on the steps, begging passers-by for scraps from Carl’s Jr.!

Or do you think she didn’t actually mean “literally” when she said “literally”?

Contrary to previous reports, it now appears that Reggie Bush isn’t banned from the Playboy Mansion after all.