USC’s nonconference schedule the right call


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In every level of athletic competition, there is one core tenet coaches use when looking toward the future: To be the best, you have to beat the best. The USC men’s basketball team turned a corner in that regard with wins over non-conference foes like Texas and Tennessee in 2010, though the challenge of taking […]

March still trumps the BCS chaos every time


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Every college football season for the past 10 years has featured a thunderstorm of complaints about everybody’s favorite whipping boy, the Bowl Championship Series. When fans, coaches and sports writers complain about the lack of a playoff system in college football, they immediately point to March Madness as the gold standard for determining a true […]

New USC challenged to survive 2011 climate


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Last June, after a four-year NCAA investigation, then-USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett echoed a commonly held sentiment: The NCAA had it in for USC. At a hotel ballroom in San Francisco, filled with 180 university boosters, Garrett responded to the Committee on Infractions’ 67-page report by accusing college athletics’ governing body of jealousy. “As I […]