Tom Dienhart

Is there any doubt Southern Cal is the best team in the nation?

Of course not. The Trojans’ dismantling of Illinois in the Rose Bowl is just further validation that USC is the cream of this year’s crop of teams.

It’s enough to make a guy ponder: What if there was a playoff?

Yes, USC would win the entire ball of wax. Which team would give the Trojans the toughest game? I think it’s Virginia Tech, which improved as the season progressed and is playing as well as any team not named USC.

The Trojan defense is without peer, possessing frightening speed. Rey Maualuga continues to validate himself as the second coming of Junior Seau, leading a front seven that swarmed and stuffed Illinois’ spread/read option.

And Joe McKnight let us know he’s primed to be the best running back in America next fall.

No way Illinois was ready for this. And that’s no fault of the Illini, who arrived in Pasadena way ahead of schedule. This team belonged in the Capital One or Outback bowls. Not the “Granddaddy of them all.”

It’s too bad the Rose Bowl folks were adamant on sticking with tradition by keeping their great event a Pac-10-Big Ten affair. Just image how great a, say, USC-Georgia Rose Bowl would have been. Instead, we got one of the biggest Rose Bowl flops in recent memory.

No team could have handled the Trojans on this New Year’s Day, a day that was difficult for the Big Ten, which went 1-2 (Michigan beat Florida in the Capital One Bowl, while Wisconsin lost to Tennessee in the Outback Bowl).

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This isn’t good for the Big Ten, which entered the postseason determined to show its uninspiring regular season was a mirage. Alas, the conference is as mediocre as we thought, going 3-4 thus far. But wait: It could get worse, as Ohio State still plays LSU in the BCS title game on Monday.

New UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel got see USC’s dominance up close, as he was in attendance. Too bad for him. This is what he’ll be measured against—and it’s almost an impossible standard.

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The victory over Illinois gives USC 11 wins, the sixth season in a row the Trojans have reached that level. And Tuesday’s triumph punctuates USC’s unprecedented sixth Pac-10 title in a row. Make no mistake: USC is to this decade what Florida State was to the 1990s.

Has any team dominated its sport more the last six years than USC? Maybe the New England Patriots, but that’s debatable.

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Want more? USC has produced three Heisman winners, seven first-round draft picks and two national titles. And in all honesty, USC could have won the national title the last two years, save for stunning losses to UCLA (2006) and Stanford (2007). And remember how close the Trojans came to winning it all in 2005, when they got edged in a thrilling BCS championship game by Texas?

Yeah, I’ll be humming “Conquest” as I go to sleep tonight. And I bet you will be, too.

Neuheisel? I’m guessing he may not sleep after what he just watched.