[NU Sports] Big Ten today ...

[Mike Nolan]

>  Different subject: for those of you who don't live in LA, try to take a moment to appreciate how good USC really is. Even if you don't like USC -- and, yes, I am first in line to shout from the mountaintops that the Cats got jobbed big-time in the 1996 Rose Bowl -- one of the joys of sport is appreciating greatness when it is present before you. This team -- this run over the past three seasons -- may end up being talked about for generations to come. And this guy Reggie Bush is the No. 1 pick in next year's draft -- ahead of Leinart, the Heisman winner. Try to enjoy it ... if you can.

Yesterday may have been one of the best days of college football watching
in many years.  So many games went down to the wire!  Right now there
appear to be 3 unstoppable teams:  USC, Texas, and Virginia Tech, and there's
a reasonable chance that there will be 4 undefeated teams from BCS
conferences come bowl season.  (It couldn't happen soon enough, the
new BCS system is more screwed up than ever before.)

I do have to agree that USC is one of the best offensive teams I've seen 
in years, though possibly not quite as good as the 1995 Huskers, a couple
of Miami squads and one or two of Barry Switzer's Oklahoma teams.  (I'm 
not quite old enough to remember the 1950's OU teams.)   

All of those great teams had a championship caliber defense, too.  I think 
USC's defense is suspect, though I'm not sure who'll prove it until
January.  Fresno State may get a chance to be the giant killer of the decade,
and the USC-UCLA game could be one for the books too, though I think
USC could be favored by at least 10 points in both games.

OTOH (and it REALLY hurts to write this), I think Notre Dame is (finally) 
back, they'll be a force to contend with in a year or two.  IMHO, they're 
only 2 plays away from being ranked no worse than #2 today.  

With Boston's World Series win last year lifting the curse of the Bambino
and the White Sox on track to banish the ghost of Shoeless Joe this year, 
can Rocky Colavito's Curse or the Chicago Cubs' Goat be far behind?

Now, what can we do about the curse of Dyche Stadium?
--
Mike Nolan