UCLA Can't Catch a Break

It must be tough the last several years being a UCLA fan in Los Angeles. The Bruin faithful have had to watch as USC has kept Tinseltown's spotlight solely focused on Southern Cal's campus by racking up multiple Heisman Trophies, Pac-10 titles and National Championships.

But when you even get overshadowed - on the same weekend - in the "epic defeat" category, that's some cold shit.

Last weekend, 22-point favorite UCLA lost - at home in the Rose Bowl - to the worst Notre Dame team since...ever. This was a Notre Dame team which had lost seven straight dating back to last year, seemed allergic to the endzone and was supposed to be on its way to an 0-8 start to the 2007 season.

But the Bruins managed to turn in one of the ugliest games the Rose Bowl has seen (at least since Michigan last played there) by producing more turnovers than points in a 20-6 loss to the Irish.

Such a monumental upset should have been the talk of sports radio, ESPN and every college football column from coast to coast. But it barely warranted a mention.

Why? Because USC went out and lost "better."

As you just possibly might have heard, 41-point favorite USC lost - at home where it hadn't lost since 2001 - to a stank-ass Standford team that had been outscored in its first three Pac-10 games by something just this side of a theoretical number. This was a Standford team that went 1-11 last year, was starting a back-up QB who'd only thrown three passes his entire collegiate career and was supposed to be ass-raped by the Trojans after the Cardinal's first-year coach talked shit about Pete Carroll over the summer.

Adding insult to injury for Bruin fans, thanks to some very idiotic forgiving pollsters, USC only fell to #7 in the polls used to determine the BCS and thus are still right in the thick of the national title race. Again.

Poor UCLA. They can't even win the "losing" part of this rivalry.