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Every year the self-fulfilling prophecy continues...the over hype regarding the continued dominance of the South-Eastern Conference, better known as the SEC. Every year, it happens like clockwork and this year is no exception. Les Miles, the Head Football Coach at LSU began his rant against the PAC-10 Conference by proclaiming the dominance from top-to-bottom within his own conference, and the relative ease of USC romping through their own conference due to the fact they are the only decent team in the PAC-10. You see, this happens every year with glaring regularity and there is a reason for this, but I will get to that later.

First and foremost, like most things in life - if it seems to good to be true, it probably is. What is often overlooked in college football is that the BCS actually only rewards a team over the course of a two-to-three year run. The 2005 Rose Bowl is a glaring example. A teams run to the BCS Championship actually takes a minimum of two, and most likely three years to complete the process. In the 2002 season, the USC Trojans manhandled a highly ranked Iowa program (11-1, only loss to National Champion Ohio State) 38-17 in the Orange Bowl, completing a 11-2 season and capping a renaissance return to the glory years that Trojan fans had become so accustomed to from the late 1960's to the early 1990's. In the season opener a year later, the Trojans shut-out Auburn on the road 23-0. Many people felt that if a playoff was in place, USC would have most likely won the championship in 2002, much like Oregon State (11-1) might have won it in 2001 after their 41-9 dismantling of perennial power Notre Dame. These two victories over the course of two seasons propelled the Trojans to the AP National Championship during the 2003 season as the Trojans defeated Michigan 28-14 in the Rose Bowl, capping a 12-1 campaign.

LSU defeated Oklahoma that same season 21-14 in the Sugar Bowl to win the BCS National Championship. However, this was the second straight season that the national championship participants included a team who didn't win their own conference as Kansas State manhandled Oklahoma 35-7 in the Big-12 Championship game that year, and a year earlier, Nebraska gained enterance after being blown out by Colorado 63-28 in the season final, which was even more shocking because the loss dropped the Cornhuskers out of the Big-12 championship game altogether. So when (11-1) USC was left out of the BCS title game after ending the season being ranked number

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