Rail is partially right, and anyone that knows the fabled history of the Holiday Bowl , or "Mr.Feb"/Mack Brown loved the dog tonight.
The Pac-10 is constantly overlooked by the media(and to those whom go to bed too early), it always is solid in Bowls.
I believe it is partially due to being motivated to "show" America what it's got every year or show-up the bias, also it always has great Offensive combos(QB-to-WR), it usually plays a good portion of it's Bowl games in West Coast/Mountain Region locales, and here is the sh!t-tosser to West Coasters..playing in soft-defensive flag-ball environs with 70 degree weather all year leaves teams physically fresh.
By the same token Rail, one could argue that one of USC's three big wins, and Oklahoma's biggest "quality" wins looked diminished tonight.
Rail, your beef is more with the Big-10 & Big-12 this fall than the SEC(admittedly down from top-to-bottom in contrast to the past), despite all your SEC-bashing..but the next few days will tell the tale.
I just wish USC would've had to earn their forthcoming AP Poll Title against either LSU or OU..and yes they can play with either.