Trojans in Need of Volunteers

Tennessee plays at Kentucky on Saturday in a game that will be televised regionally on the Jefferson Pilot network. Dave Neal will handle the play-by-play.

You can also pick up the game on the Vol Radio Network.

Tennessee leads the all-time series, 66-23-9, and has won the last 18.

The Volunteers (9-2) have won five in a row after a 4-2 start. Kentucky is 4-7 under first-year Coach Rich Brooks.

Tennessee’s quarterback is Casey Clausen, a senior from Mission Hills Alemany High who recently set the school record for most passes thrown without an interception, 143.

Kentucky’s quarterback is Jared Lorenzen, a senior who, at 6-4 and 260 pounds, is very, very large.

Why on Earth would anyone in Los Angeles care about a Southeastern Conference game featuring teams with a combined nine losses?

Well, after USC fans are done nibbling on left-over turkey and UCLA Bruin, they might want to chew on this:

If LSU defeats Arkansas on Friday in Baton Rouge, the Tennessee-Kentucky outcome could determine whether USC plays for the national championship in the Jan. 4 Sugar Bowl.

Interested now?

Here’s how convoluted this bowl championship series race can become:

USC is No. 2 this week in the BCS standings, 2.15 points ahead of No. 3 Louisiana State.

It is a given LSU will gain ground if it wins its last two games even if USC blows out Oregon State on Dec. 6. How much ground is the key.

If the Tigers can shave the deficit to less than a point, they might be able to squeeze into the No. 2 spot on the strength of the .40 “quality win” deduction they are receiving for their victory over No. 7 Georgia.

LSU can only get that deduction, however, if it keeps Georgia out of the SEC title game on Dec. 6.

Here’s where Tennessee can help USC.

A Volunteer victory over Kentucky will force a three-way tie in the SEC East among Tennessee, Georgia and Florida.

Based on tiebreaking procedures recently adopted, the champion will be determined by the highest-ranked school in the BCS standings.

Right now, Georgia is No. 7, followed by Tennessee at No. 8 and Florida at No. 11.

It stands to reason Georgia would hold its spot should it defeat Georgia Tech this weekend because a win over lowly Kentucky might actually hurt Tennessee in the BCS.

If LSU beats Arkansas, the Tigers win the SEC West and advance to the title game. If this happens, USC wants LSU to face Georgia.

Why?

Well, of course, a Georgia win would knock LSU out of the national title race.

But even an LSU win could help USC because, in victory, the Tigers would lose their “quality win” if they knocked Georgia out of the top 10.

In a cruel BCS twist, a victory in the SEC championship could cost LSU a shot at the Sugar Bowl (and people wonder why the BCS is controversial).

And what if Kentucky upsets Tennessee? The tiebreaker then reverts to head-to-head and Florida advances because it beat Georgia.

This is the worst-case scenario for USC, especially if Florida defeats Florida State and Georgia is 10-2 after beating Georgia Tech.

Not only would LSU get a huge strength-of-schedule boost for beating Florida to win the SEC title, the Tigers would also get to keep the quality win deduction over Georgia.

One caveat: There is a slight chance Florida could win the three-way tie battle in the SEC East even if Tennessee wins. For this to occur, however, the Gators would have to beat Florida State and Pittsburgh would have to upset Miami. Even then, it would be tough for Florida to finish higher in the BCS than Georgia.

There are other obvious outcomes that can help USC, foremost Arkansas knocking off LSU and Georgia Tech beating Georgia (thus knocking the Bulldogs out of the BCS top-10).

Yet, for USC, it may boil down to a Tennessee waltz over Kentucky.

The Volunteers have won the last 10 games in Lexington and are a virtual lock to win, right?

Don’t panic if Tennessee falls behind, either, because the Volunteers five times this year had to rally to win games.

Last week, when USC needed Michigan to beat Ohio State, the Trojans’ adopt-a-fight-song program involved a chant of “Let’s Go Blue.”

This weekend, the Trojans may need to brush up on “Rocky Top.”

Hurry Up Offense

Another important game for USC this weekend: Alabama at Hawaii. USC beat Hawaii and LSU beat Alabama, so a Hawaii win would give USC a nice strength of schedule bump.

This week’s BCS computer outrage: LSU is No. 9 in the New York Times rankings. You could debate whether LSU is second, third or fourth but no way are the Tigers No. 9. And you wonder why we want to toss the nerds out?

Thankfully, the NYT mark does not count against LSU’s average; a school’s worst ranking is discarded.

The BCS beat goes on: If LSU edges out USC for the No. 2 spot, it will probably mean LSU ended up ahead of USC in more computers. If this happens, it would mark the third time in four years the undisputed No. 2 team in both people polls would be denied a title-game shot because of the BCS computers. (Miami in 2000, Oregon in 2001).

LSU Coach Nick Saban has a point when he says it seems unfair that his team would not receive quality win points should LSU defeat Georgia for a second time in the SEC title game. “I think you should get more,” Saban said. “It is hard to beat the same team twice.”

BCS bowl jockeying: The winner of Miami at Pittsburgh on Saturday most likely will decide the Big East champion and bring the major bowls into clearer focus. A Pittsburgh victory could leave the Panthers in a conference tie with West Virginia, yet Pittsburgh would get the nod if it finishes five spots ahead of West Virginia in the BCS standings, which figures to be the case.

How the Pitt-Miami winner affects the major bowls: If it’s Miami, the Orange Bowl will probably take Miami and let Florida State go to the Fiesta Bowl because the Orange Bowl doesn’t want a Miami-Florida State rematch. A Pittsburgh victory would likely pit the Panthers against Florida State in the Orange.

Stand by your man: No one has ever accused Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr of being touchy-feely. At halftime of the Ohio State-Michigan game, he snapped at ABC sideline reporter Todd Harris when Harris asked why Carr ran out the clock at the end of the first half.

During his postgame press conference, Carr made a point to lash out at those who had been critical of his senior quarterback, John Navarre.

“I have no problem with criticism,” Carr said. “I’m talking about people who went overboard, who wrote some things about the kid that tried to humiliate him, embarrass him, degrade him. I think some of those things were despicable.”

Carr added of Navarre: “He’s an unbelievable human being. I’ve had some great quarterbacks, I mean great ones, but John Navarre is one of them.”

Navarre, a fifth-year senior, had taken considerable grief for two consecutive defeats to Ohio State. As he clutched the Big Ten trophy and tears welled in his eyes, Navarre said he never defined his career based on his performance against Ohio State.

“The reality was, that’s how the media and everyone else was going to define it,” Navarre said.

If you had doubts as to whether Ohio State-Michigan is college football’s best rivalry, and maybe the greatest in sports, consider that 1,170 media members were credentialed last Saturday for the game in Michigan Stadium.

Notre Dame (4-6) has no shot for a bowl invitation even if the Irish win their last two games, against Stanford and Syracuse. A school can only go to a bowl game with a 6-6 record to fill a conference’s bowl slots. Notre Dame has loose bowl ties to the Big East, but Boston College’s upset win over Virginia Tech last week gave the conference five teams with winning records and that knocked the Irish out of consideration.

Add Irish: Why is America’s most staunchly independent program at least loosely exploring options of joining a conference? Word is the next BCS contract will not have as many concessions for the Irish, who presently receive the same money a conference gets for making a BCS bowl game.

The Big Ten still makes the most sense for Notre Dame, but the school has fences to mend after turning down conference membership in 1999.

Cautionary note to Big 12 North champion Kansas State, which plays Oklahoma for the conference title on Dec. 6 in Kansas City: Oklahoma has outscored its Big 12 South opponents, 291-50.