USC and Texas:

A sports debate. Well, I'm since of the USC cheerleaders, and I've been watching the bowl game scores.

Observation 1: The Big 12 is Really Really Good -
- Missouri upsets South Carolina
- Kansas destroys Houston
- Nebraska beats 20th-ranked Michigan
- Colorado, who was humiliated by Texas 70-3 in their last game, in a close game against 19th-ranked Clemson
- unranked Oklahoma beats 6th ranked Oregon
- Texas Tech, the only other ranked Big12 team, hasn't played yet.

Observation 2: The PAC-10 is shaky
- UCLA did not look good in almost losing to unranked Northwestern (worst of the Big10 teams in bowls this year)
- Rutgers....RUTGERS...almost beats Arizona State, who played USC well.
- California barely beats the WAC's BYU, who also played USC well.

Observation 3: Texas's only close game this year was against then-#4 Ohio State. USC has had two close games, Notre Dame and Fresno, and I think Notre Dame was overrated this year. USC showed substantive weakness on defense in both games. Ohio State only lost to Penn State this year, while Notre Dame and Fresno had less impressive records than Ohio State.

Observation 4: USC's reputation is primarily built on a blowout of substandard Oklahoma last year, and this year's USC team has not look inspired and focused as the previous year's team.

By these measurements, Texas actually looks to be the favorite in this game. Texas will be hungry, as will Mack Brown, who has endured many years of failure and setbacks at the hands of Nebraska and Oklahoma.

I feel so much better.