What a marvelous Saturday it was for...

What a marvelous Saturday it was for the Trojans football team.

The Troy University (Ala.) Trojans -- not to be confused with the stumbling Trojans of Southern California -- crushed winless Florida International, 34-16, propelling the latter into first place in the Bottom Ten.

Previous leader Notre Dame was a 20-6 winner over the UCLA Ruins, but analysts said an early-season victory, though unfortunate, wouldn’t necessarily knock the Fighting Rash out of contention for the Bottom Ten title.

Elsewhere, supporters of flowerhouse Utah State (0-6) complained bitterly that their school deserved to be No. 1 and was the victim of regional prejudice by Eastern pollsters, who don’t stay up late enough at night to see how bad the teams in the West are.

Meanwhile, USC was panicky upon learning it had to face Arizona (2-4) in the Western regional Crummy Game of the Week. After all, if the Trojans could lose to 41-point underdog Stanford, imagine what a disaster is in store for them against Arizona, a mere 21 1/2 -point underdog.

*--* Wreck Team, Record Last Loss Next Loss 1. Fla Int. (0-6) 16-34, Troy Recovering 2. Utah State (0-6) 37-52, Hawaii Healing 3. NC State (1-5) 10-27, Florida State Hiding 4. Colorado State (0-5) 20-24, San Diego State Air Force 5. Minnehaha (1-5) 20-40, Indiana Northwestern 6. Duke (1-5) 36-41, Wake Forest Va. Tech 7. Syracuse (1-5) 14-55, W. Va. Rutgers 8. Iowa State (1-5) 17-42, Texas Tech Texas* 9. Idaho (1-5) 20-28, San Jose State Fresno State 10. SMUs (1-4) Idle So. Old Miss *--*

The next 10: 11. Nevada (Lost Wages) (2-4); 12. Two Lane (2-4); 13. Arizona (2-4); 14. Tie among Brown and Columbia (both 1-3) and Notre Dame (1-5); 17. Gentle Penn (1-3); 18. Wisconsin (worst 5-1 team ever); 19. Tie between USC and UCLA (winless in October).

*If necessary.

Rout of the week: Virginia Tech (5-1) vs. Duke (1-5).

Crummy Game of the Week: USC (4-1) vs. Arizona (2-4).

More digs at USC: On ESPN radio, Mike Ditka congratulated Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh on convincing his players that “just because they’re guys who have to go to class every day,” they could still whip homework-light USC.

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steve.harvey@latimes.com