The Rose Bowl did USC no favors yesterday by choosing Illinois. Aside of the fact fans are pretty much unhappy with the choice and the Trojans’ initial reacton was apathy, how about the national championship ramifications.
As an AP voter, I’m open to the idea of choosing another team to win the national title besides Ohio State and LSU, who stumbled into the title game. But how many voters will side with a USC team that beats 13th-ranked Illinois?
The Rose had top 10-opponents Missouri and Kansas sitting there and ignored them. It also ignored West Virginia. Those teams gave USC a platform to lobby for a national title. Instead, three-loss Illinois comes to town, exciting no one outside of Champaign-Urbana.