All the respect in the world for LSU...I was 100% them getting a chance to face the best team in the country because they deserved it, and were robbed by having to play a totally overrated Oklahoma team...that almost came back to beat them.
The bottom line is talent, and USC has way more of it. There is one, perhaps two LSU offensive player that could start on USC's offense...There are at least four or five USC defensive players that would start for LSU.
Don't kid yourself about the LSU secondary...they faced NO ONE all year. Michigan's secondary, the supposed best in the country, got exposed within 37 seconds of USC's first possession.
USC's D-Line overrated?....ask Navarre how those 9 sacks felt after only getting sacked 15 times all year.
I'm not here to say USC's defense is as good as LSU's defense...they are not. But LSU's offense is nowhere near that of USC, and college football is the one sport when a team thriving on a good offense faces a team thriving on a good defense, the offensive team wins. There are just better athletes on that side of the ball.
You will see this five years from now when nearly every offensive player for USC is playing in the NFL and LSU has one, maybe two (Mauck, are you kidding me..there are five teams in the Pac 10 he couldn't even start for). Defensively, LSU should have four or five NFL players...But USC will be close to that number.
If USC played in the SEC, their defensive numbers would have been similar to LSU's, and vice versa. I do think LSU would have won the Pac 10, but they would have faced much more potent offenses than they did in the SEC. USC would crush Georgia, Arkansas, and everyone else on LSU's schedule.
And I could sit here and post links to the VAST MAJORITY of peiople in the know who think USC would beat LSU, but you really don't have that much time to read, because it is a long list.
And forget about them playing next year for the national championship, stick a fork in LSU, they lose way too much to make another run. But it sounds like they will be solid in years to come.