SOUTHERN CAL TRIVIA

Here's a gem.

Everyone knows that the only teams that the Trojans seem to lose to are PAC-10 also rans. It is an odd phenomenon. Oregon State, Oregon, Stanford, Cal, these are the teams keeping Southern Cal from winning the national title every single year.

When was the last time Southern Cal lost to a team from another conference?

That's easy. Vince Young and the Longhorns punked fruity Matt Leinart and slimy Reggie Bush in their own backyard in one of the greatest games in the recent history of college football. That was at the end of the 2005 season.

So other than that epic conclusion, when was the last time that the Trojans dropped a game to a non-PAC-10 team that wasn't a national title game?

If you know the answer to this off the top of your head, slowly back away from the computer and go get yourself, a life. Pete Carroll and Phil Steele are the only two guys that should have that kind of recall in this particular instance.

The answer?



I'm going to make you wait.

As you probably know, the PAC-10 has gone to a schedule where every team in the conference plays every other team in the conference. With a 12-game regular season, and an annual beat down of Notre Dame on the slate, that leaves only two non-conference games every year. To USC's credit, they rarely schedule patsies.

SI.com's Stewart Mandel recently had this to say about Southern Cal's schedule:

"While I have no quantitative data to back this up, you'd be hard-pressed to find a school with a more consistently tough out-of-conference schedule than USC (which makes its string of seven straight 11-win seasons that much more impressive). In addition to its annual series with Notre Dame, the Trojans have had home-and-homes since 2000 with Ohio State, Auburn, Arkansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas State, BYU and Hawaii as well as neutral-site games with Penn State and Virginia Tech. During that time, they have played 73 percent of their nonconference games against BCS-conference foes and Notre Dame. The national average last year among BCS-conference schools was 36 percent."

Even with the toughest non-conference schedule in the nation since the turn of the century, the Trojans have managed to win almost every single one of those games. That really puts in perspective the dominance. And makes the losses more startling.

The only genuine lightweight I could find on their non-conference schedule as of late was Idaho in 2007. Sadly, the Vandals managed to keep the game closer than the Buckeyes did falling 38-10. Don't fret though true believers, the Buckeyes are in good company. Mighty Arkansas lost 70-17 in 2005 and 50-14 in 2006. Virginia went down 52-7 last year. Southern Cal dropped a half a hundred plus on the Rainbow Warriors of Hawai'i in both 2003 and 2005.

One interesting footnote to this impressive streak, the SEC. For all their bloviation, bluster and national titles, the SEC hasn't given Southern Cal any fits whatsoever. There were the aforementioned blowouts of Arkansas and there were also two wins over Auburn. The Trojans pasted the Tigers in 2003 23-0. The year prior, USC had won 24-17.

Coincidentally, 2002 brings us the answer to the trivia question. That's right, you have to go back to 2002 to find a non-conference loss in a game that wasn't for the national title. Six years in a row, Southern Cal has won every single non-conference game by an average margin of 30 points. THIRTY POINTS.

I would have probably named at least 50 teams before I came up with this one. The last non-PAC-10, non-Texas team to vanquish the University of Southern California?

Wait for it...

Kansas State.

The final score was 27-20. Hell of a game actually. Wish I could remember it. I blame whippets.

That Kanasas State team featured both Terrence Newman on defense and Darren Sproles on offense. The Wildcats went up 10-0 in the second quarter and then the Trojans scored on a fumble recovery from the KSU three yard line. Kansas State quickly regained the moment. The USC PAT was blocked and Newman took it the distance to put KSU up 12-6 going into the half. Two more TD's from the Wildcats in the second half before USC mounted a furious comeback with two TD's in the last ten mins.

So there you have it. Almost seven years ago Southern Cal could be had. Not so much since then if you're not a PAC-10 or coached by Mack Brown.

Does Ohio State have a chance?

Sure.

Is it slim?

Yes.