USC is trying to land — errr, harpoon — Rick Majerus as its new men’s basketball coach.

If they succeed, methinks there’ll be one less room in the Radisson that Housing can use for student overflow…

HeismanProjection.com is predicting a very, very close vote between Matt Leinart and Adrian Peterson for the Heisman Trophy.

Personally, I won’t mind if either one wins. I just don’t want Jason White to get it again, because that would be borrrring, plus I think he’s a bit overrated. But it looks like he won’t, so, woohoo!

If I had a ballot, I think I would have voted for Reggie Bush first, Peterson second. It’d be cool to see a freshman win for the first time (a sophomore has never even won)… but obviously I gotta go with my Trojans… so, GO LEINART!

The ceremony is at 8:00 PM tomorrow.

HeismanProjection.com, which uses actual “declared” votes to predict the Heisman result (they got it right in 2002 and 2003), says USC QB Matt Leinart is the favorite, with 25.1% to Adrian Peterson’s 21.6% at the moment. Jason White, Reggie Bush and Alex Smith are all hovering around the 13-15% range.

(Hat tip: BoiFromTroy.)

Oh yeah, I’m awake, and studying contracts. Er, I was studying contracts, until this post. Back to work now. :)

The five Heisman Trophy finalists will be announced tomorrow. CBS Sportsline offers predictions.

The USC Daily Trojan has taken a bold step forward into the late 1990s with its first-ever “Online Update”! Hip hip, hooray!

I think they’re still unclear on the concept, though. It’s an article about Saturday’s game, but it wasn’t posted on the site until Tuesday. Nothing like timely journalism!

The University of Southern California fired men’s basketball head coach Henry Bibby Monday, in the wake of early-season losses to North Carolina (okay, that’s at least respectable… but did they have to lose by 22?) and La Salle (which, after an off-season rape scandal that deprived it of three players and a coach, was winless… until the Trojans came to town).

The Trojans had a win-loss record of 131-111 under Bibby, but they are 28-36 since the tail end of the 2001-2002 season, when they lost to Arizona in the Pac-10 title game and then were upset in the first round of the NCAA Tournmanent to #13-seed UNC Wilmington. They have not returned to the Big Dance since.

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Orange Bowl: USC vs. Oklahoma
Sugar Bowl: Auburn vs. Virginia Tech
Fiesta Bowl: Utah vs. Pittsburgh
Rose Bowl: Michigan vs. Texas

So Cal will go the Holiday Bowl… which bumps Oregon State into the Insight Bowl against Notre Dame.

P.S. BoiFromTroy has the USC-OU series history.

Brad Edwards has the definitive column on what to expect later today from the BCS — including the possibility that Oklahoma may snatch the #1 spot from USC.

But if that happens, even though it would technically give the Fiesta Bowl the right to select its first participant before the Rose Bowl can select the opponent for Michigan, it shouldn’t have any effect on the BCS matchups.

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The regular season is over, and there are five undefeated teams in Division I-A:

USC (12-0)
Oklahoma (12-0)
Auburn (12-0)
Utah (11-0)
Boise State (11-0)

I would argue that all five of them deserve a shot at the national championship. Whatever conference they happen to play in, whatever schedule their coaches drew up for them, the players did every single thing that was asked of them. How can you deny a Division I-A team that hasn’t lost a single game the chance to play for the biggest prize in the sport?

I realize that some will disagree with regard to Utah and BSU. But at the very least, it is indisputable that the top three — the Trojans, Sooners and Tigers, major-conference teams from the Pac-10, Big 12 and SEC, respectively — all deserve an opportunity to play for the title. Any system that doesn’t give them such a chance is monumentally unjust.

There is no “tweak” to the BCS formula that can solve this problem, no adjustment to the selection criteria that can prevent this fiasco from repeating itself. Indeed, the BCS itself isn’t the problem; under the pre-BCS system, all three teams might have been playing in different bowls (Rose, Fiesta and Sugar), which would have been even worse.

No, the problem isn’t the BCS per se; it’s the absurd anti-playoff paranoia of the college football powers-that-be, who for some reason believe that anything resembling a “playoff” will cause the world to come crashing down around them. These idiots believe that a single championship game — a “two-team playoff,” if you will — is sufficient to choose a national champion. They are wrong. They have always been wrong, but now we can all see for ourselves just how wrong they are.

This nightmare scenario was bound to happen eventually, and now it finally has. It will happen again, too. It was, and is, inevitable. Any system that cannot handle this obviously forseeable scenario is fundamentally flawed and deserves to be unceremoniously tossed into the trash.

I’m a loyal USC fan, and this year, my Trojans are safely in the championship game while somebody else gets screwed. Last year, it was the other way around, but I won’t hesitate to say that this year’s fiasco is far worse than what happened last year. Last year, each of the Top 3 teams had one loss, which means the team that got “left out” had far less reason to complain; the Trojans could have reached the title game if only they had won all of their games (i.e., if they had beaten Cal). This year, by contrast, there is no such consolation for the team that gets “left out.” Auburn has simply been f***ed. There is no other accurate way to describe it.

The best solution is an eight-, twelve- or sixteen-team playoff. But at the least — at the very least — we need to go to a “plus-one” BCS format. I believe we should also make some additional modifications to the BCS selection criteria in order to ensure that the plus-one system will accomplish its goal of narrowing the number of undefeated teams to one by the end of the postseason.

Regardless of which solution is preferred, though, the current system cannot stand. It is an absolute sham, and college-football fans — whether they support USC, Oklahoma, Auburn, or any other team — ought to rise up in unison against it. Letter-writing campaigns, boycotts, protests, whatever it takes. This is absolutely ridiculous, and it is long past time that something be done about it once and for all.

[/soapbox]

And with that, I have to get back to Legal Writing… :)

Possibly the worst game of USC’s season… lots of gifts from UCLA, and one big gift from the refs… Matt Leinart blows his shot at the Heisman… but who cares? We won, and we’re going to the Orange Bowl, baby!!!

P.S. And Reggie Bush is going to New York, or should be.

By the way, that’s six in a row, for those scoring at home. Woohoo! F**k the Bruins!

You’ve got to be kidding me…

PHEW! Intercepted!

Dammit, dammit, dammit…

29-24, 2:20 LEFT: Dammit, dammit dammit.

YESSS! We got the onside kick! Now we just need one first down…

USC takes over at the UCLA 20-yard line with six minutes left. Two touchdowns and I win my bet with Mike… c’mon guys…

DAMN: Going for the field goal. That won’t do it. But, uh, they might still win the game… :)

Meanwhile, Auburn now leads 21-7.

USC got the field goal… a school-record five FGs for Ryan Kileen! 29-17 Trojans. At least that takes the margin outside of the “10-point swing,” for now…

I’m at the law lounge now. 20-10 USC at halftime. Second half now underway.

Matt Leinart is not exactly having a Heisman-worthy game, so far.

UPDATE: 23-10.

Meanwhile, Auburn leads 14-0 in the first quarter.

WAKE UP!!! Where are my Trojans?!? UCLA threatening…

UGH: 23-17, late third quarter.

Is Norm Chow asleep? Is he daydreaming about the head coaching job at Stanford? Where are the patented second-half adjustments leading to a third-quarter blowout?

UPDATE: 26-17 with 12 minutes to go. Leinart keeps overthrowing his receivers… he did so again on a pass to the end zone, so the Trojans had to settle for a field goal.

It would be really nice if USC could blow this open… not only because I’m 14 points out of the money right now :), but because I really don’t want to hear Bruin fans (and miscellaneous Trojan-haters) whining about how the refs’ 10-point swing at the end of the first half cost UCLA the game…

BUSH FOR HEISMAN? Is Reggie Bush making a late surge toward an invite to New York here?