BCS Controversy Is Sweet News to Family

The wife is happy that USC won’t be going to New Orleans and interfering with the family trip to Las Vegas. That means the vibes are good and I might get lucky, as long as I’m left alone at the craps table.

I’m a big believer in the value of positive vibes, which is why I always give the wife two rolls of nickels when we go to Vegas and urge her to go somewhere and have a really good time. Besides, I make more money than she does, so why not be generous.

But my final assignment before striking it rich in Vegas will be the Rose Bowl, and I’m concerned, because right now I’m not feeling a lot of positive vibes coming from my fellow die-hard Trojan fans.

Many of them are downright ticked, some going so far in e-mails to suggest that the wife’s family reunion in Vegas factored in the computer calculations that kept USC from going to the Sugar Bowl.

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NOW HOLD on there. Right now the fact is that USC’s best allies are sportswriters, you know, just like me. (Well, maybe not just like me.)

I’ve been trying to explain to Mike Garrett & Co. for years that we’re almost kin, but not once has he said anything about joining him for Thanksgiving dinner. Or any meal at all, now that I think about it. And right now we’re his pals.

The sportswriters, and there are some sports broadcasters in there, too, among the 65 voters in the Associated Press football poll, have the Trojans ranked No. 1. Now I don’t happen to have one of those votes, but you can just imagine what I had to say to those people who do.

The coaches also have USC ranked No. 1, but they will no longer have a say in who will finish No. 1, because by rule they must rubber stamp the BCS title-game winner -- the national champion. And it can’t be USC.

The AP (writers) poll is all that matters right now, so on behalf of USC, I called the AP sports editor, Terry Taylor, in New York to make sure everything is in order for USC’s coronation -- after the final AP poll is released the evening of Jan. 4.

She said the wire service’s national-championship trophy will be shipped to the AP Los Angeles bureau by the end of the week in preparation for presenting it to USC. She said she’s already talked to school officials, which is something one day I hope to experience.

Personally, I’d have waited until the Trojans beat Michigan before shipping the hardware here, but I guess this is an example of that East Coast bias we’re always hearing about.

“Now don’t you get me in trouble,” Taylor pleaded, and as long as Associated Press doesn’t pick up this story and alert the folks in Michigan that someone already has Michigan pegged to lose the Rose Bowl, I think she’ll be OK.

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I SHOULD note for the record that Taylor has no problem getting other folks in trouble. “What golf course is Dwyre playing today?” she asked, and I had no intention of alerting the Times’ bosses that the sports editor was off playing golf again until she mentioned it. And you know when AP gets ahold of information, it goes to everyone in the world, so I had to go public with it.

I’m told by unreliable sources that Dwyre was not only playing golf, but maybe slated to give a speech too. Now what could the Great Leprechaun possibly have to say about Notre Dame at this time of the year?

Anyway, after Taylor and I took turns badmouthing Dwyre, I asked about the AP trophy the Trojans would be getting, and how it compared with the crystal bowl Oklahoma or LSU will receive.

“It’s gorgeous, and darn good-looking,” Taylor said, and although I knew we were no longer talking about Dwyre, I guessed that maybe she had something to do with the design of the trophy.

“I don’t remember; maybe,” she stammered, and I should tell you at the start of the interview she said she touched her St. Jude medal five times in the hopes she’d survive our little chat. We’ll see whether St. Jude can block the folks in Michigan from learning their team already has been tabbed to lose by the designer of the AP national championship trophy. (By the way, I wonder whether UCLA has given any thought to passing out St. Jude medals?)

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A FEW minutes after USC whipped Oregon State to top off a super season, UCLA sent an e-mail announcing practice times for the Silicon Valley Classic. You have to say this about UCLA -- there’s no quit in the PR department.

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I’M A big fan of San Diego’s Ted Leitner, heard on radio 1090, except on those days when he makes no sense. Monday he told his audience, “I feel more confident with the Chargers’ quarterback of the future, that being Drew Brees, than Detroit’s Joey Harrington.” I believe the Chargers have made it pretty obvious that their future is a 41-year-old Mission Bay Shrimp.

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FOR THOSE keeping count, that’s three players the Dodgers have identified a real interest in who ended up elsewhere, beginning with Derrek Lee, followed by Richie Sexson and now Kazuo Matsui. Thank heavens General Manager Dan Evans has never expressed a real interest in me.

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AN AD in Monday’s sports section offered “official USC Sugar Bowl” packages for $2,199 per person double occupancy. Apparently there are a number of packages still remaining, because the ad appears again today on Page D5.

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TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from Tommy U:

“Mike Garrett was at both USC women’s volleyball matches. He even said, ‘hi,’ to me. I made sure not to mention your name, but on Saturday night there was an empty chair next to him. I thought maybe he was saving it for you.”

Are you sure it wasn’t an electric chair?

T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com.