Most of you are not in Hong Kong. Most of you reading this are in the States, and have access to televisions, and have already seen this. But, the other day, I made such a fuss over USC and UCLA being able to wear their home jerseys for their game this year, that I feel […]

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We knew from the moment USC lost at Oregon State, that the Trojans’ had a very hard road ahead of them — almost certainly an impassible road ahead of them — to get to the BCS title game. And we wrote that, the night of Sept. 25. They had to win out and hope all […]

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This is my first fall away from professional sports journalism since 1975. And even in 1975, I was covering sports at Long Beach State. That is, I was doing sports for 33 consecutive fall seasons. And the really weird thing is … I don’t much miss it.

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It’s not over for John McCain or USC’s dreams of a BCS title game slot. But as the pundits would say, both have to fill an inside straight. With, like, two cards. Or in the Trojans’ case, maybe three cards. USC defeated Washington 56-0 on Saturday … and dropped two slots in the BCS rankings, […]

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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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