Interesting thoughts from Stewart Mandel of SI

Mandel has a weekly mailbag where he answers readers' questions. After the Rose Bowl, there were lots of questions about the set-up of Big 10 vs. Pac 10. There was also a lot of USC love.

I thought this one was worth sharing.

Stewart -- did I miss something? Since when does beating Arizona State and Illinois get you crowned likely national champs and the hottest team in college football? Oh, I forgot ... USC was the only team with injuries this season. Do you crown these guys too?
--Dustin, Lake Charles, La.

No, I'm as puzzled by the continued USC infatuation as you are. Even before the Rose Bowl beatdown of Illinois, there seemed to be a huge segment of the public and media that still believed the Trojans were the best team in the country, despite almost no tangible evidence to support that. This is a team that beat two -- I repeat, two -- teams with winning records during the entire regular season and lost to a team (Stanford) that finished the year 4-8.

Yes, I understand USC -- and John David Booty in particular -- was banged up in that game. You know who else suffered a boatload of injuries this season? Oregon. The Ducks were playing without three of their top four receivers and their No. 2 tailback when they beat the Trojans on Oct. 27. If you want to argue that USC could have won the national championship if it had stayed healthy, I'd counter that they might not even have won the Pac-10 had Dennis Dixon stayed healthy.

No question, USC, once healthy, was one of the top teams in the country by the end of the season, but there are still at least three other teams -- Ohio State, LSU and Georgia -- I'm more impressed with based on their seasons as a whole. As far as I can tell, the continued perception held by those who still believe USC as the top team in the country is based primarily on their track record (six straight seasons of at least 11 wins is pretty darn impressive) and the fact the Trojans were picked as such before the season. (Which is itself amusing, considering all the complaints I hear about preseason polls).

The fact is, USC did not look remotely like the No. 1 team in the country until the 11th game of its season, Thanksgiving night against Arizona State, and the Sun Devils wound up getting crushed by the two other best teams (Oregon with Dixon and Texas) it faced. The Trojans then beat up on what we figured all along would be an overmatched Illinois team. If you want to ignore their first 10 games and anoint them based on their final three, be my guest, but I personally tend to favor those who show consistency over a slightly longer period.