Let’s get this out of the way right up front: Auburn got a raw deal. I would probably feel this way even if I weren’t from Alabama. So would anyone who remembers how exciting the days from New Year’s Eve through January 2 used to be before all this BCS idiocy butted in and tried to fix something that wasn’t broken.

In times past, any of three big bowl games could settle the national championship – or produce one of two national champions. It was chaos, it was irrational, and it was terrific fun. Then the killjoys – most of them sportswriters in the Northeast, where college football ranks with hockey as a gate attraction – decreed that college football wasn’t enough like the pro game and needed to have an “official” title game.

Bear Bryant had it right: there is a playoff system in college football, and it’s called the regular season. That should determine whether or not a team deserves a shot at winning the national title. Auburn didn’t necessarily deserve to play Southern Cal in place of Oklahoma in tonight’s Orange Bowl, but after facing a schedule as tough as the other two contenders, they were worthy of at least an outside chance to win it all.

All that being said, it’s doubtful that any BCS game or any other college bowl in at least two decades has offered a matchup as enticing as this Orange Bowl between USC and Oklahoma. If either of these teams were to take the field against, say, the bottom six seeds in the NFL – which is where many of the seniors from the two teams will wind up – they’d probably be favored.

ORANGE BOWL
(Tonight, 8 p.m. on ABC)

USC (12-0, 8-0 Pac-10) vs. Oklahoma (12-0, 8-0 Big XII)

No college game has ever brought together so many legitimate Heisman Trophy candidates. With USC’s Matt Leinart and Oklahoma’s Jason White, it presents a matchup of two Heisman-winning quarterbacks. Two of the nation’s most exciting running backs, the Trojans’ Reggie Bush and the Sooners’ Adrian Peterson, also face off.

The defenses aren’t bad, either, but they will be overmatched; the question is which will be more overmatched. There are no statistics that give either team a clear edge in any phase of the game, but the needle in every comparison pulsates toward Southern Cal.

Let’s review. First, the Trojans and Sooners each went unbeaten against comparable schedules. The Trojans scored eight more points while allowing 14 fewer – not much of a difference. USC averaged 442 yards per game while allowing 271; OU gained 469 while allowing 280.Again, jump ball. USC punted just 47 times all season, averaging 42.4 yards per punt; OU sent out 49 punts for an average of 41. Nothing to choose between here.

USC returned 27 kickoffs for 651 yards, an average of 24 a try; OU had 21 for 395 yards, an average of 18.8. Okay, that’s something; if one of these two teams breaks a long kickoff return, it’s likely to be USC. Likewise with punt returns; USC averaged 13.7 yards on 29 returns, while OU had a 9.2 mark on 34. And USC’s advantage increases dramatically when Reggie Bush, who averages 16 yards a return, gets his hands on the the ball – and you can bet Bush will be fielding all the punts for USC in this game.

Now we’re getting somewhere. If a couple of key possessions come down to field position, USC is slightly better armed on both the giving and receiving ends.

Other little things add up. Southern Cal committed just 64 penalties this season for 512 yards; Oklahoma had 82 for 703. In other words, the Sooners are more likely to jump offside or make a false start in a key situation.

Then we come to some differences that are not so little. Start with the pass rush. Oklahoma’s is good, but Southern Cal’s is better. The Trojans’ opponents attempted 469 passes and were sacked 48 times, or 10.2% of the time; their leading sacker was 300-pound senior Shaun Cody, who had nine. The Sooners’ opponents attempted 413 passes and were sacked 38 times, or 9.2% of the time.

Here’s the biggest difference of all: The Trojans’ ball-hawking pass defense intercepted 19 passes, allowing just 5.6 yards per throw, while Oklahoma picked off only eight and allowed 6.2 yards a throw. USC’s mobile linebackers, Matt Grootegoed and Lofa Tatupu, intercepted almost as many passes, seven, as the entire Oklahoma defense. And though Jason White threw only six picks all season, two of them were returned for scores.

Both teams have explosive running backs, both have defenses that can stuff the run – especially the Trojans, whose soda machine of a nose tackle, 6-foot, 290-pound Mike Patterson, practically guarantees that Oklahoma won’t be able to run on the inside – and both have great passers. Southern Cal, though, is slightly better at sacking the quarterback and markedly better at defending the pass. And the Trojans’ defensive statistics are all the more impressive because they had to face California quarterback Aaron Rodgers, a passer in a class with both Leinart and White.

Oklahoma seemed to straighten out its defensive problems in the last three games of the season, particularly when senior defensive back Antonio Perkins rejoined the lineup after an injury in the Texas game. But the Sooners’ defense, which gave up 846 yards in back-to-back games at Oklahoma State and Texas A&M, is still suspect.

All these factors point to Southern Cal having more athletes to spread out at more positions, not just on offense and defense but on special teams, as well. What about the so-called intangibles of coaching and experience? Well, here it all comes down on Southern Cal’s side. Since Pete Carroll installed his pro-style game in 2001, the Trojans have been on a frightening roll. Last year, they toyed with Michigan in an easy Rose Bowl victory, while Oklahoma suffered both offensive and defensive breakdowns in losing their conference playoff to Kansas State and the Sugar Bowl to LSU.

Some have argued that the Sooners have more to prove than the Trojans, but Southern Cal, a team with no apparent weaknesses, is not the squad to try proving anything against. Expect the Trojans to lead for most of the game by the field goal they are favored by before breaking the game open with a big play some time in the second half – a long punt return, an interception, or a long pass from Leinart to Bush that catches some unfortunate linebacker by surprise.

Southern Cal by 10.