Just take the rankings a few weeks back.

There were many reasons to rank USC over Oregon at that point (strength, speed, rating of the players, previous years history, some categories of statistics…).

But results on the ground this year was not one of them. Football is a game in which you have to score more points than your opponent. Unless you had some kind of emotional attachment to USC, you really couldn’t have justified ranking them higher than Oregon.

Practically speaking, anyone who’d been watching Oregon play the last seven games (seven, mind you, seven – enough to detect a trend) would have seen this beat down coming. I realize most East Coast fans and bloggers don’t get to watch (or want to watch) Pac 10 games (at any rate, non-USC games).

So I understand that a lot of people got completely shocked, surprised, deep-fried, pole-axed by the USC-Oregon result.

Most sports beat guys and fans had predicted a USC win (I only fault professional, mainstream journalists, who get paid to watch and comment on College Football for reacting with shock – the ordinary fan in other parts of the country probably only last saw Oregon getting beat by Boise).

But while most people had predicted a USC win, few predicted a blowout by USC. I mean, seriously? My prediction for the game was similar to HP’s, except reversed, I had the Ducks winning 45-17.

So while HP remains a favorite blogger, an entertaining read, I respect his opinion in all things except those involving USC, with all due respect.

HP I give you credit…no other independent CFB writer seems to take nearly as much crap as you do.