This is what happens when you put Ohio St. on the schedule.

A soft schedule and hard finish for top-ranked USC?

An undefeated, 12-0, USC team shut out of the national championship game? Doubtful but definetely not out of the realm of possibility and just one more reason to love the BCS.

It happened back in '04 when an undefeated Auburn team got left out of the BCS championship game that was played instead by USC and Oklahoma. That is to say, USC played and Oklahoma got lost on their way to the Orange Bowl in a 55-19 drubbing where Osceola CC suited up in the Crimson and Cream.

With the Pac-10 stinking up the joint this year, the Trojans will be rooting for the Buckeyes to run the table in an also-pretty-suspect Big 10 (plus 1). Shouldn't be a problem as USC may need every one of those computer points should teams from both the Big 12 or SEC emerge undefeated.

And because of what we saw last year with LSU and idiot-savant coach, Les Miles, winning the whole shooting match with 2 losses, we would only be mildly shocked if the BCS puzzle palace spit out an 11-1 Missouri vs. an 11-1 Georgia for the championship game with an undefeated USC on the sidelines.