Reality slowly sunk in Monday that USC would play Michigan in the Rose Bowl instead of either LSU or Oklahoma in Sugar Bowl. Fans, sports columnists and radio talk-show hosts in Los Angeles displayed their anger, conducting a wide-open debate on the college football poobah's decision to put the Sooners and Tigers in the national championship game Jan. 4, even though USC romped over a decent Oregon State team Saturday and is ranked No. 1 in both national polls.

The opinions ranged from shrieking -- "put the BCS and its computer-generated rankings into the nearest trash compactor," to the reasonable -- "it isn't so bad playing in the Rose Bowl" and, as Coach Pete Carroll said, if the Trojans beat the Wolverines, they'll have a share of the national title. Things would still be rosy for New Year's.

Carroll put the dim situation into the best possible light Sunday on national television, although newspaper reports later said that his staff and players were disappointed and heartbroken.

USC did everything it could but came up a short 0.16 points behind LSU. Hawaii's and Notre Dame's loses were said to work against the Trojans as well as Oklahoma's embarrassing loss to Kansas State in the Big 12 championship game.

It would be easy to say the Trojans were victims of the system, but a closer look at their schedule reveals an interesting picture. Although six Pac-10 teams made it to bowls this year, only two were in the top 25: USC and Washington State. The league as a whole had a sub-par season.

Two years ago, the conference enjoyed the strong ranking of six teams in the top 25. Oregon State was Sports Illustrated's No. 1 team. Washington, Washington State, Oregon and UCLA were all picked to have good seasons. In fact, Oregon had beaten Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl in 2001 and Stanford went to the Rose Bowl the year before.

But in 2003, UCLA struggled under first-year head coach Karl Dorrell; Arizona and Stanford were atrocious. Arizona State, Washington, Oregon State and California all were mediocre. If the Pac-10 was as strong this season as it was just a short three years ago, no one would be worrying about Hawaii losing to Boise State. In fact, nonconference games scheduled against the likes of Auburn, Notre Dame, BYU, Colorado and Hawaii would be more than acceptable.

Mike Williams made one-handed touchdown catch for the ages Saturday, but the Trojans saw their possibly once-in-a-lifetime chance at playing for a national title pulled off their fingertips by the BCS' machine-over-man rankings system.