with the nfl playoffs still a coupla weeks away... it's time, once again, for a canadian boy to have a go at understanding american college football. the arrival of espn (an americanization of a canadian idea...) has made watching bowl games on tv in this country much easier. but it still doesn't explain why an unbeaten team ranks #9...

anyways, once again it starts with the basics. & in american college football... that means the rose bowl. after the initial disaster... what, you don't know about the first rose bowl?

in 1902, the tournament of roses association added a football game to their annual festivities. stanford agreed to meet powerhouse michigan... & gave up in the 3rd quarter when the score reached 49-0. the next year... roman-style chariot races replaced the football, & it wasn't until 1916 that the annual football game returned. it didn't become the rose bowl game until the rose bowl was built in 1922.

but that was then. this year... it's michigan vs usc. the last two rose bowl losers get to duke it out now that texas have been reminded of the alamo (clever?).

i'm an underdog kinda guy & a historian kinda guy & a frat-level humour kinda guy AND an anti-xman... so my knee-jerk reaction is to back the trojans over the wolverines. not that wolverine isn't the best x-man. any good canadian kid will tell you that.

but let's look at the records. it happens that usc & michigan are the two teams to have played in the most rose bowls. usc's website has it different... but the rose bowl's website lists this as usc's 29th & michigan's 19th. usc has won nearly 1/4 of all the rose bowls & has a 21-7 record. michigan is 8-10. head to head, usc leads 5-2 (true... the first time they met, michigan recreated their debut 49-0 thrashing in their 2nd rose bowl appearance in 1948).

michigan will be playing for the memory of bo schembechler & that'll be tough to overcome. bo had a heart attack the night before his wolverines lost to usc in the 1970 rose bowl. they lost to usc twice more in 1977 & 1979, & bo retired immediately after finally beating the trojans in 1989. it's fitting that his fatal heart attack came the night before his team lost to ohio state & wound up playing usc in the rose bowl.

but the trojans have a legacy to be played for too... usc's oldest-living all-american trojan, larry stevens, died recently at the age of 95. & a week later... mvp steve smith, receiver dwayne jarrett & lineman sam baker were named all-americans, bringing usc's total to 145. (!!!) jarrett was named first-team all-american for an unprecedented two consecutive years... & jarrett/smith are the first team-mate first-team all-americans in a dog's age.

which means this stacks up as the best receiving corps in usc history. a college which once had lynn swann in its receiving corps... on a team that won the rose bowl in 1973 & launched swann onto his run with the steelers.

sedrick ellis & ryan kalil won the offensive & defensive morris trophies as linemen of the pac-10.

michigan, sure... but they're up against a great usc team. so i'll take usc... 24-17.