His Final Conclusion Is a Matter of Opinion

It’s a safe bet USC fans will agree only to a point with what Berry Tramel wrote in the Daily Oklahoman of Oklahoma City this week:

“I’ve always been partial to Southern Cal. Love the uniforms. Love the white horse. Love the fight song. Love the song girls. Love the L.A. Coliseum. ... But I’ll pass on the Southern Cal pity party.”

Concludes Tramel: “The BCS got it right.”

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Trivia time: Oklahoma has had three Heisman Trophy winners. Can you name them, and what did they have in common?

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Another viewpoint: Ryan McGhee, a sports columnist for Oklahoma’s student newspaper, sounds like a rational and smart young man.

McGhee wrote: “OU fans from across the nation will want Michigan to beat USC in the Rose Bowl so OU won’t have to share the national title. But why? OU fans should be willing to sacrifice half of a national championship for the greater good of college football.

“If there is another split national title, the BCS might just go away. Our national nightmare would be over.”

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Band-aid approach: Mike Tranghese, the Big East Conference commissioner who is in his last year as BCS coordinator, says BCS leaders might tweak the system in April.

Wrote John Romano of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times: “This is like a man who, day after day, steps in a puddle of mud. Instead of looking for a new route, he seeks a better polish for his shoes.”

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One idea: Reader Bob Smagula suggests that the way to restore sanity and integrity to the BCS system is to bring in Don King.

“He’s an absolute master at dealing with multiple champions,” Smagula said in an e-mail.

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Makes sense: Jeffrey Flanagan of the Kansas City Star wrote: “You can talk all you want about USC getting the shaft, but how do you think the folks at Middle Tennessee feel?”

Flanagan points out Kansas State beat Oklahoma, 35-7, Kansas State got beat by Marshall, 27-20, and Marshall got beat by Middle Tennessee, 27-20. So Flanagan figures Middle Tennessee should be playing for the national championship.

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Bread and butter: Peter Kostis, working the Target World Challenge for the USA network, said, “If you want to find out where Tigers Woods has had his dinner on the PGA Tour -- during his entire career he’s 16 under par on the par-threes, 89 under on the par-fours and 1,066 under part on the par-fives.”

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Trivia answer: Billy Vessels (1952), Steve Owens (1969), Billy Sims (1978). They all were running backs.

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And finally: Steven Vanderpool of Stats, Inc., said LeBron James already has had five games in which he didn’t score in double figures. “In comparison,” Vanderpool e-mailed, “in the 930 regular-season games he played with the Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan failed to score in double figures only once -- during the 1985-86 season shortly after returning from a broken foot.”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.