Before I go into my rant here I feel it necessary that I note some of the folowing things to qualify my Bruin faithfulness/fanaticism:

Tonight, I will be leaving Las Vegas at 2AM to drive overnight to the OC, catch a nap at my aunt's house and then head to Westwood for the Ben Ball opener against  Fullerton, I will then drive back to Vegas after the game

Two days ago, I gave my mother a Christmas gift request (to this day she insists I try to make a Christmas list every year). I asked for a pair of custom made Blue and Gold Vans to match my myriad UCLA shirts.

Two years ago, on a trip to Europe, I felt compelled to visit Milan almost entirely as a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, the building upon which the facade of Royce Hall was modelled.

Three years ago, I put $1000 on the Bruins to win the NCAA Tournament before the season started and refused o hedge my bet (though I could have easily profited $2500 to $4000) because I felt it would have been disloyal.

I could go on and on but I think you get the point.

Now, all that being said I offer the following - the USC football team has been really really good over the last several years.

I don't know why it gets under my skin so much but it totally bugs me when fellow Bruin fans attempt to dismiss what SC has done in recent years. Doesn't anybody else here like a formidable villain. I look at SC as the Ivan Drago of college football. Rocky IV was awesome because of its awesome villain and its villain was awesome because of the following:

He was a natural rival (like the Scumbags from crosstown)

He cheated (like the Trojies)

He was an arrogant jerk (sound familiar)

He was a dominant force (there's no denying this)

I feel that our dismissal of the SUCsters dominance under Cheatey is just as foolish as Leinert's "I still think we're the better team" comment after the Rose Bowl loss. Both are instances of people dismissing empirical evidence (for Leinert it was the fact that they had just lost, for us it's the fact that nobody consistently crushed top 25 opponents the way the Trojies did during their recent run) and forming opinions based more heavily on their personal allegiances.

My hope is that this year is a relative abberation for the squad of arrogant overpaid "amateurs" at the University of Spoiled Children. I hope that they come back with avengance next year and for many years after. I hope that they consistantly lose one game each year and I hope that each year as they are on the verge of dropping that lone loss the UCLA fans in the stands cheering on their undefeated Bruins as they prepare for a Rose Bowl or National Championship game don't offer that ridiculous "OV-er-RA-ted" chant because everyone will know that the Trojies were rated correctly as the #2 team in the country behind UCLA. Is it just me or would that be way sweeter than crushing an SC team that had returned to pre-PC mediocrity?