Maybe an American expat can buy some sort of cable package, here in Hong Kong, that gets you all the sports TV you might be able to see back at home. I haven’t found it yet. But I’m not totally disconnected from the goings on, via television. I saw two L.A. teams in action today, […]

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You might think an unranked team (say, Oregon State) pulling an upset of the nations’ top-ranked team (say, USC) would be a rarity. Turns out, it’s been done nine times in the past 20 years, so it’s not an event quite as rare as Halley’s Comet. Here is a link to the list of unrankeds […]

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Stop me if you’ve heard this one. A “great” USC team, loaded with the country’s top prep talent, praised and lauded after impressive  non-conference victories … loses to a mediocre-to-bad Pac-10 team. Happened twice in 2006. Twice more in 2007. And once, already, in 2008. Oregon State 27, USC 21. That’s 25-and-a-half-point underdog Oregon State […]

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An interesting dynamic, in Southern California journalism. And this pertains to blogging as well as writing: You have to get your ideas into print/on the web … before the Los Angeles Times does. Or you run the real risk of being seen as a intellectual-property thief. The maddening thing is, it doesn’t work the other […]

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It’s out there, now. Theirs for the taking. USC is the overwhelming No. 1 in the latest polls, picking up all but a handful of first-place votes in the AP (61 of 64) and coaches’ (57 of 61) polls. After crushing Ohio State, the Trojans clearly have convinced everyone they are serious players in the […]

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That Ohio State drive I mentioned below in an item below? The one for the field goal? Turns out that was the Buckeyes’ high-water mark. After that it was all USC. With extreme prejudice. The Trojans handled Ohio State like Florida and LSU did in the last two national-title games. Except even more decisively.

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Especially if it’s Ohio State. If a big-name school from one of the serious conferences finishes 11-1 … you have to like its chances of getting to the BCS title game. So the loser of USC-Ohio State … most certainly isn’t dead. For starters, if the loser goes 11-1 — its one loss will be […]

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Trojans have taken control. A couple of nice drives, an interception returned for touchdown by Rey Maualuga, and it’s 21-3. Could have been more, by the Trojans and Mark Sanchez tried to force a play at the end of the half and threw an interception. That would have been three points. The most impressive players […]

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Innocent until proven guilty, apparently, is how USC and coach Pete Carroll approach the Shareece Wright situation. Wright is the junior from Colton who has been charged with felony “resisting a police officer” in connection with a party in Colton last weekend. Wright, however, was the starting right cornerback for USC in its game with […]

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Bad day for the Pac-10 Conference. BYU 59, UCLA 0 Maryland 35, No. 23 Cal 27 TCU 31, Stanford14. That’s most of the entire second-tier (after USC) of the Pac-10 going down to (perhaps) one decent team (BYU) and two middling programs (Maryland, TCU). Washington will be thrashed by Oklahoma later today. Then, on Friday, […]

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