Despite its shortcomings, the Bowl Championship Series paired the two one-loss teams who played the toughest schedules and achieved the most success.

I’m tired of hearing all these “journalists” say how great USC is.

Local writers acted like it was the second coming of Tommy Bowden’s 12-0 Tulane Green Wave. It may be, but the AP did not give Tulane a trophy that year, nor did it give Boise State or Miami of Ohio one this year.

Although it is a power conference, the Pac-10 had a horrible season. Before winning the Rose Bowl, USC beat a team (Washington State, the second-best Pac-10 team) whose claim to fame is a win over Texas, but so did LSU (over Arkansas).

Oklahoma, of course, beat the Longhorns themselves 65-13.

And don’t look for impressive Pac-10 bowl victories, because unless you think New Mexico is a powerhouse you won’t find any.

It is no wonder that Leinart’s statistics were so good against the Pac-10.

Cal lost to Oregon, Oregon State and UCLA. Not to mention Colorado State, Utah and Kansas State. But it did manage to beat USC.

Carroll won the AFC East as an NFL coach, so he should have had no problem navigating that cupcake schedule on the way to an undefeated season. Of course, USC didn’t finish undefeated.

The only reason LSU’s schedule strength was anywhere near as bad as USC’s was the fact that LSU played a poor non-conference schedule. But LSU’s conference, the SEC, had half a dozen teams who deserved to be ranked.

We’ll never know who would have won between LSU and USC, but I do not think Oklahoma, even though their game against Kansas State was bad, should have been penalized because its conference has a championship game.

USC may or may not have had trouble winning a title game, but even if they had it would not have compared to having to beat Georgia for a second time or having to beat Kansas State at all.

Even though Oklahoma was unsuccessful in the latter endeavor, the Sooners’ road to the Big XII title game was more impressive than anything USC did, even including the Rose Bowl win over Big 10 champion Michigan.

USC’s second-biggest win before the Rose Bowl was over Auburn, whom LSU also blew out.

Using the AP poll to demonstrate how absurd its number 1 is, LSU beat number 3 Oklahoma, number 7 Georgia, number 13 Ole Miss, and number 27 Arkansas. Florida, who was playing their best football of the season when they dealt LSU its only loss, still finished 24th.

Cal did not receive a single AP vote.

Computer polls and strength of schedule ignore the fact that USC beat an over-rated Auburn team early on and lost earlier than LSU or Oklahoma did. Neither of those things makes one team better than the other, but the voters think that they do. The BCS counteracts that.