TFM'S FIRST AND LAST COMMENT ON THE CAL, THE BCS, AND THE ROSE BOWL

With Cal winning the Insight.com Bowl over a pretty good Virginia Tech team in one of the most entertaining games I've ever seen (101 points, no turnovers), wouldn't this help USC in an alternate universe? Sure, there's no polling until after the early January games, but say someone activated the BCS supercomputer this morning: Would another quality win for Cal, the only team that defeated USC, boost the Trojans' score enough to overtake LSU and earn a title berth?

The other irony is that Cal has had a series of tough, close losses this year (Colorado St, Utah, UCLA, Oregon), and if the Golden Bears had been able to pull out, say, two of those, that could have been enough to make it USC vs Oklahoma. Before Cal fans take glee in keeping OJ University out of the national championship game, consider this: If Cal had been able to pull out the overtime game against UCLA, and had been able to hold on to a 10-point lead in Eugene, they'd be in the Rose Bowl right now. Seven points from the Rose Bowl. Ouch.