USC near-unanimous choice to win Pac-10 football title

USC was voted a near unanimous choice to win the Pacific 10 Conference football championship in a vote by West Coast media members released today.

USC received 38 of 39 first-place votes. California, which finished fourth in the poll, got one vote.

Arizona State was picked to finish second behind the Trojans followed by Oregon, Cal, UCLA, Oregon State, Arizona, Washington, Stanford and Washington State.

Times writers do not participate in polls.

USC opens the season Aug. 30 at Virginia.

Stanford’s Harbaugh staying quiet

Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh made headlines last year when he used Pacific 10 Conference media day to pronounce that USC “may be the best team in the history of college football.”

Harbaugh was reminded of statement before and after the Cardinal upset USC, 24-23, ending the Trojans’ 35-game Coliseum winning streak.

Today, when asked if he could supply more bulletin board material this season, Harbaugh quipped, “I didn’t know I was bulletin board guy.”

He also said the aftermath of the Cardinal’s victory over USC was “water under the bridge.”

Carroll, coaches in lively officiating debate

It was an early-morning wake-up call for a 7:30 meeting with the Pacific 10 Conference’s coordinator of officials, but that didn’t stop USC Coach Pete Carroll from initiating some spirited debate.

Dave Cutaia of the Pac-10 covered a variety of topics during his session with all of the head coaches, including chop blocks, clock changes, horse-collar tackles, face-mask violations, targeting an opponent with the crown of helmet and reviewable plays.

Carroll got rolling after Cutaia showed a video clip of a helmet-to-helmet hit on a punt return and said the tackler would be ejected.

“This stuff just happens and it has nothing to do with the guy’s intent,” Carroll said of the specific example in the clip.

Carroll continued, saying officials should not be looking to eject players for actions that were not intentional. The subdued meeting then turned into a lively series of exchanges with nearly every other coach weighing in on the topic.

New UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel even agreed with Carroll.

Washington’s Tyrone Willingham cautioned that the intent of the rule was to address one of the most unprotected situations in football.

Cutaia said he appreciated the feedback and would take the comments into consideration.

Later in the meeting, Cutaia said egregious errors such as an incorrect good or no-good call on field goals could now be reviewed.

“We don’t want to get caught in procedure,” he said. “We want to get the darn play right.”