SEC is dominant and LSU is perfect (but USC rules)

Unbuckling the mailbag:

Question: The SEC isn’t really that strong? Only five of the top 12 teams are SEC members. There would probably be more if they didn’t beat up on each other. The SEC and Big 12 are the crème de la crème. The others can’t hold a candle.

Barry A. Rose

Answer: You would think someone named “Rose” would have a little more respect for the conferences that play in the Granddaddy of All Bowl Games every year. I would expect this sort of stuff from Barry A. Sugar, or Barry A. Chick-fil-A.

I don’t think the SEC is that strong this year, but that doesn’t mean the league does not deserve to be 1-2-3 in the Bowl Championship Series standings. In fact, that’s the way I had it this week in my rankings. I blame the schools — Stanford, Boise State, Oregon, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Clemson — that blew their chances to challenge SEC supremacy this year.

I am resigned now to seeing a rematch between SEC schools in the BCS title game, even though I’d rather go to the dentist.

Q: The first solution to the problem of SEC dominance: tell the Big 12 to quit being the spread conference and go back to playing real football. For everybody else (including your Pac-12) hiring SEC coordinators as head coaches might work. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Tracy Rense

A: Missouri and Texas A&M obviously got your memo. Both schools are leaving the Big 12 to join the SEC in “America’s Conference.”

I’m sure Washington State out of the Pac-12 would love to join the SEC, but could you imagine the trip from Pullman to Starkville? It would take five days to get home and back.

The one Pac-12 school you wouldn’t want to join the SEC is USC.

The Trojans played home-and-homes this century against Auburn and Arkansas and won those four games by the cumulative score of 167-48.

USC opened the 2003 season at Auburn and left with a 23-0 win. The first time Matt Leinart had ever taken a snap in a college game was in that game.

You say that’s ancient history?

Well, I’m not sure any SEC team would want to play USC today, either.

Q: I was trying to figure out how many times since the BCS came out has a team had a perfect score?

Don Geller

A: I could go back through the week-to-week BCS standings dating back to 1998 but that would cut into my day-after Thanksgiving couch time.

It was a remarkable score. Louisiana State wasn’t just No. 1 in the BCS last week, it was a perfect No. 1. The Tigers were No. 1 in all six BCS computers and were a unanimous No. 1 pick in both the USA Today and Harris polls.

The interesting thing is, LSU, before this year, had only been No. 1 for a total of two weeks despite winning national titles in 2003 and 2007.

Q: What do you expect from a region of the country that universally disdains education? They skate through classes and play ball. The Pac is crammed with top schools and still remains competitive every year. This is a much more significant achievement.

Philip Golden

A: Yeah. All the SEC cares about is winning championships. They do, however, give out prestigious “Road Scholarships” to future highway workers.

Q: Keep telling yourself that the SEC is not the top conference in the country. Currently, we have won the BCS championship five years in a row.

Currently, the top three teams all are from the SEC. The SEC will mostly likely have a loser in the BCS championship game this year. Too bad it will take two SEC teams to make this a reality.

Keep flailing.

Jerry Rowells

A: The SEC is 7-0 in BCS title games. It might be true that the only way an SEC team will lose a title game is if it plays another SEC team.

At least that’s what I keep telling myself.

Q: The tenor of your piece on “SEC, 1,2,3”, seems to be that the SEC doesn’t deserve its status as the best football conference or the top three spots in the poll.

Doyle Martin

A: That’s not true. The SEC, for sure, is superior to the Big Tenor.

Q: I was under the impression that to be eligible for the BCS title game a team must win its conference (and therefore its title game). That would, then, prevent two SEC teams from playing one another.

Greg Wagner

A: You need to get out from under that impression. Two schools from the same conference can play for the national title. And it might very well happen this year. The BCS rule on this is simple: The top two teams in the final standings will play for the national title.

Q: Your rankings this week make about as much sense as Chip Kelly’s non-use of timeouts.

How do you rank USC ahead of Oregon and Stanford, which Oregon cruised just a week prior, at No. 4?

Are you telling me that Oregon cannot beat Houston or Boise State? Please.

Your credibility stock has plummeted.

Andrew Harrison

Eugene, Ore.

A: Your question makes as much sense as Chip Kelly’s non-use of timeouts because, in my poll, I have USC at No. 9 and Oregon ranked No. 10.

Like every other college football poll known to humankind, I do have Stanford ranked ahead of both USC and Oregon. The simple reason for that is Stanford only has one defeat while USC and Oregon both have two losses.

Q: Ohio State is currently 6-5. Have the Buckeyes ever lost five games in a season before?

John H. Williams

Simi Valley

A: Yes. Don’t you remember Edwin’s Sweetland’s 6-5 team of 1904?

The Wright Brothers out of Dayton were so upset they quit flying in for home games.

The great coach Woody Hayes had a team that posted a 3-5-1 record in 1959.

More recently, Jim Tressel went 7-5 in his first year, in 2001, the year before leading the Buckeyes to the national title.

John Cooper’s 1999 squad finished 6-6.

You’re right, though. It doesn’t happen very often.

Q: You are at least the third Times writer in the past year or so to state that Matt Barkley lacked a “signature win” during his time at USC. I’m not sure how you define a signature win, but what about Barkley’s win over Ohio State as a freshman in 2009?

Brian Fodera

Los Angeles

A: That year was hard to evaluate because Pete Carroll thought everything Barkley did as a true freshman was a “signature” moment and should have been compared with Joe Montana and Tom Brady. Carroll’s over-effusive praise for Barkley, which I thought was tied to Carroll’s rationale for benching Aaron Corp after an injury, clouded any clear evaluation of Barkley.

Barkley would complete a pass and Carroll would say something like, “No one in the history of USC has ever thrown a better screen pass.”

Barkley did not have a great freshman year. He threw for 15 touchdowns with 14 interceptions. He is having a fantastic junior year.

I thought Barkley showed poise against Ohio State in 2009 for someone so young, but I recall that game-winning drive being more of Joe McKnight’s signature moment.

Barkley completed less than 50% of his passes in that game for 195 yards with no touchdowns and an interception.

It was nothing compared to Barkley’s brilliance against Oregon. Not even close.

Q: I see that you have moved into your normal “On College Football” stance supporting and cheering Southern Cal no matter what. Forget about objectivity.

Once again, you have shown that the L.A. Times remains the “official” newspaper of Southern Cal football.

Glenn M. Langdon

Garden Grove

A: Yes, as we say around the newsroom: “Write On!”

chris.dufresne@latimes.com