USC Victory Stirs Reaction

As USC sealed its 28-14 Rose Bowl victory over Michigan Thursday, and a split national championship went from possible to inevitable, the realization began to set in among players from Oklahoma and Louisiana State.

The Sooners and Tigers will meet in the Superdome Sunday night in a Sugar Bowl billed as the bowl championship series title game -- which was designed to determine an undisputed national champion. But USC, ranked No. 1 in the media and coaches’ polls, is expected to claim the Associated Press national title, while the Sugar Bowl winner will be crowned BCS champion, and the national championship will be split.

“My mom taught me to share when I was a kid, but there are some things you don’t want to share,” Oklahoma center Vince Carter said. “A national championship is one of them.”

The Sooners and Tigers probably won’t have a choice. No team ranked No. 1 in the final regular-season AP poll that won its bowl game has dropped in the rankings, and USC’s victory over Michigan appeared to solidify its standing.

So after waiting four years to take its turn staging the national championship game, the Sugar Bowl will produce only half a champion. Still, Paul Hoolahan, executive director of the Sugar Bowl, was forceful in his defense of the game.

“The magnitude and importance of the Sugar Bowl’s BCS national championship game remain unchanged,” Hoolahan said in a prepared statement. “Oklahoma and LSU are two outstanding teams who distinguished themselves throughout the season and thereby earned the right to compete for the BCS national championship.

“What has been interesting to watch is the unprecedented level of attention that has been generated by the current BCS system. College football fans across the country have shared a keen interest in both the regular season and the postseason, and that can only be viewed as a positive for the parties involved, including conferences, universities, networks, sponsors, and, most important, student-athletes.”

Neither Oklahoma nor LSU watched the Rose Bowl as a team, and for much of the week players from both teams seemed ambivalent about what was happening in Pasadena, saying a USC victory would not take any luster away from the Sugar Bowl. LSU defensive tackle Chad Lavalais echoed those sentiments when interviewed during the first half of the USC-Michigan game Thursday.

“I could care less [about the Rose Bowl] -- I’m more worried about getting ready to practice [today],” Lavalais said. “It’s on right now, but when I get back to my room, I’m going back to sleep. I just want to win the Sugar Bowl. It’s the national championship game. If we win, I guess it will be a split championship, but I really don’t care.”

Interest in the Rose Bowl seemed to perk up among others Thursday.

“Sure, I’ll watch -- it would be stupid to say none of us are interested because we are,” LSU strong safety Jack Hunt said. “It would be nice to have the title for yourself, for your team, but we can’t control that. We’ve preached all year to not worry about things you can’t control, and this is no different.”

LSU defensive end Marcus Spears said he wasn’t rooting for Michigan but acknowledged that “for our fans, it would be special if Michigan won, but when we win this [Sugar Bowl] game we’ll feel like national champions, no matter how the Rose Bowl turns out. As players, we don’t want to share the title, but that’s the reality of it.”

A solution to the controversy, of course, would be for USC to face the Sugar Bowl winner.

“That would be a lot of fun; a lot of people would want to see that,” Spears said. “But that’s not going to happen.”