News Leaves Trojans Critical of BCS

Less than 24 hours after joyously celebrating a victory that propelled USC to No. 1 in the polls for the first time in more than two decades, Trojan players sat mostly in stunned silence Sunday afternoon in the university’s athletic dining hall.

USC already knew the final bowl championship series standings before they were announced on television. So players, coaches and administrators stared blankly at the big-screen monitors on the wall, trying to mask the disappointment of being No. 3 behind Oklahoma and Louisiana State, and of playing Michigan in the Rose Bowl instead of Oklahoma or Louisiana State for the BCS title in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.

Sophomore wide receiver Mike Williams apparently could not take it. He left the building as soon as analysts broke down the Sugar Bowl during the opening segment.

“The fact that we’re the No. 1 team and we’re not playing in that game -- that speaks for itself....,” Williams said immediately upon exiting. “Of course you want to be there. I mean, guys have been to Pasadena before.”

USC’s season-ending 52-28 victory over Oregon State on Saturday, combined with Oklahoma’s loss to Kansas State, was enough to push the previously second-ranked Trojans to the top of the Associated Press writers’ poll and the USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll. It is the first time since the fifth game of the 1981 season that USC has been ranked No. 1, and the first time since 1972 that the Trojans have ended the regular season and played a bowl game atop the polls.

The Sugar Bowl winner is automatically crowned the BCS national champion, but eight-time national champion USC -- the first No. 1 team in the polls not to play in the BCS title game -- can still win a share of its first national title since 1978 if the Trojans defeat fourth-ranked Michigan on New Year’s Day.

History favors the Trojans if they beat the Wolverines. No team that finished the regular season No. 1 in the AP poll has dropped after winning a bowl game. And seven of USC’s national titles have followed victories in the Rose Bowl. USC declined the bid to play in the 1929 game.

Coach Pete Carroll accepted a bouquet of roses from Mike Riffey, the president of the Tournament of Roses Assn., then put his usual optimistic spin on his team’s situation. Carroll said the Trojans’ goal every year is to play in the Rose Bowl.

“The full wish is to be in there as the No. 1 team in the country and play for the national championship,” he said.

USC (11-1) will be making its 29th Rose Bowl appearance and its first since defeating Northwestern on Jan. 1, 1996. The Trojans are 4-2 against Michigan in the Rose Bowl, and will be playing the Wolverines for the first time since winning, 17-10, on Jan. 1, 1990.

USC players voiced respect for Michigan (10-2), which last played in the Rose Bowl in 1998, but they also took shots at the BCS system.

“We’re the No. 1 team in the nation,” linebacker Lofa Tatupu said. “It’s unfortunate the computers can’t figure that out.”

Said cornerback Will Poole: “They’re going to have to do something about the BCS. Maybe they need to pull the plug.”

Mike Garrett, USC’s athletic director, said he likes the BCS system because of the exposure it generates. But he also said changes are necessary.

“Obviously, it needs some tweaking, because when you’re the No. 1 team in the nation and then you’re not in the championship game, then you know it’s not right,” Garrett said.

Williams and Carroll said USC could not complain too loudly about its fate because the Trojans did not finish the season unbeaten.

USC’s 34-31 triple-overtime defeat at California, and its strength of schedule, came back to haunt the Trojans.

“[Fans would] probably be burning the place down if we were undefeated and we weren’t playing in the BCS championship game, but we’re not undefeated,” Williams said.

Said Carroll: “If we won every game and this would have happened, I’d feel a whole lot different. But we had our bad day too.”

Carroll said his teenage son, Nate, crunched the BCS numbers Sunday morning and then broke the news that the Trojans would not be in the Sugar Bowl.

A few hours later, after receiving official word from Garrett, Carroll addressed the team at Heritage Hall.

“He came in smiling, so I was thinking, ‘Maybe he’s just putting us on,’ ” Tatupu said. “Then he told us we are the No. 1 team in the nation, but ... “

Carroll said he sensed his players’ initial disappointment and confusion about being left out of the Sugar Bowl. Sophomore defensive lineman Frostee Rucker, he said, asked, “Does that mean we’ll get the crystal football [the BCS championship trophy], or won’t we?”

Asked whether he thought Sunday’s events would spur changes in the BCS contract when it is up for renewal after the 2005 season, Carroll did not hesitate.

“Certainly it will,” he said. “This isn’t supposed to happen. And it did.”