Real answer on whether USC is leaving Pac-10: No

Question: Chris, I know that much about the Top 25 is tongue-in-cheek, but this is the third reference that I have heard about USC considering leaving the Pac-10 . . . is there any fire to the smoke?

Skip

Answer: The joke answer is that USC ought to consider joining the NFC West because that way we could officially say pro football has returned to Los Angeles.

There's no smoke to this fire. USC is stuck with the Pacific 10 conference, just like the Pac-10 was stuck with USC all those years when Paul Hackett was coach.

These things tend to go in cycles, and right now USC's is on "heavy load."

The Pac-10, honestly, could not have had a worse two weeks if Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie were in charge.

First, another horrendous officiating decision by Pac-10 officials in the Washington-BYU game may have cost the conference a precious victory against the Mountain West.

The Pac-10 could have used that win, because last weekend it went winless in four tries against the Mountain West Conference.

Commissioner Tom Hansen, out of pocket, picked the perfect time to take a European vacation.

Funny, though, how fast the Pac-10 became a one-trick traveler.

Last year, you may remember, it was Oregon on the fast track to the national title game until Dennis Dixon tore up his knee. USC has not lost a nonconference, regular-season game since September 2002, but it has lost four Pac-10 games in the last two seasons.

I remember all this best-team-ever talk last year after USC destroyed Washington State at the Coliseum, 47-14, on Sept. 22.

I remember because I wrote that night, "the Trojans hit all their marks and displayed the embarrassment of riches everyone knew they had stashed all along."

Two Saturdays later, USC lost at home to Stanford, a 41-point underdog.

Oops.

Let's not get carried away until Pete Carroll gets carried off a field.

USC plays at Oregon State on Sept. 25.

The Trojans haven't lost in Corvallis since . . . the last time they played there.

------

Q: How much do they pay you? Too bad the L.A. Times can't get a sportswriter whose salary isn't clearly supplemented by the [U]SC media department.

Kelly

A: Kelly, my paycheck is my business, but I will say this: If I was getting paid by the word, this answer would be longer than Tolstoy's "War and Peace," but I'm not, so I'll keep this short.