Well, the long and short of it is that USC will probably be in the Sugar Bowl as a 6-7 point dog to Okla, unless they lose to Ore State [unlikely].
We have the old strength of sched deal again.
LSU should not schedule La Monroe, La Tech, and W. Ill, if they want to play for the NC.
I think that LSU is probably as good as USC, or close to them. But the fact is that USC did not schedule patsies. Their non-conference schedule was Auburn, BYU, Hawaii, and Notre Dame. Granted none of these teams were as good as they are normally, but SC didn't deliberately go out and schedule teams that they KNEW that they could beat, like LSU did.
That is a fact, and that is why the polls [not BCS have USC ranked over LSU].
-Zip