Showdown in the Colisseum

Free your calendar.  Set your Tivo.  Turn off laptop, cell phone, PDA.  This Saturday is the Pac-10, no, the national, game of the year.

As the world knows, two squads will be battling for sole ownership of the Pac-10 cellar, the Cheat Pete Trojans and the WSU Cougars.  Wazzu is a heavy favorite to pull out the loss, as they return much of last year's team that had the worst defense in the nation and build upon the 2008 foundation of one conference win, copped against the only college footballers to garner a winless season.  USC has an uphill fight to overcome its huge talent gap over the Cougars, its home field advantage, and a 44-point betting line in Vegas.  Can Cheat Pete pull this one out and succumb?  

It's certainly not without precedent, as with a more skilled (and higher paid and less academically endowed) squad, he choked at home to 41-point underdog Stanford.  He is already making excuses for his men, so it appears he is working hard on the demotivation factor.

Prediction: SC 30, WSU 7, and MSM headlines that the Trojans are back.