Schadenfreude special: Oklahoma vs. Ohio State

Imagine if Oklahoma played Ohio State in a BCS game.

Could they both lose?

Somehow, these schools have managed to rival fellow Midwest powerhouse Notre Dame for bowl season meltdowns (the Irish lost nine in a row before this season).

Forget all the snide remarks about the Buckeyes losing three straight BCS games (this year's Fiesta Bowl and the two previous championship games). The Sooners have botched their last five BCS games:

• 2004: Lost to LSU, 21-14, in the BCS national championship
• 2005: Lost to USC, 55-19, in the BCS national championship
• 2007: Lost to Boise State, 43-42, in the Fiesta Bowl
• 2008: Lost to West Virginia, 48-28, in the Fiesta Bowl
• 2009: Lost to Florida, 24-14, in the BCS national championship

It's an enormous accomplishment just to make it to that level, but ... ouch.

At least Ohio State was successful in big games earlier this decade, winning the Fiesta Bowl in 2003, 2004 and 2006 (the first victory doubled as the BCS national championship).

Surprisingly, these programs have faced each other only twice. Ohio State lost at home in 1977, and Oklahoma lost at home in 1983.

It's been 25 years since they played, and maybe it should stay that way.

-- Adam Rose

Top photo: Buckeye fans strike a familiar pose. Credit: Leon Halip/US Presswire.

Bottom photo: Bob Stoops has to wonder why he's always looking at another L. Credit: J. Pat Carter/Associated Press

After BCS championship, is 3-D broadcast technology coming to a theater near you?

Cheerleaders look better in 3-D.

Injuries look worse.

Bell-ringing collisions? They have a little more ring-a-ding-ding.

But if Thursday's screening of the BCS National Championship Game between Florida and Oklahoma was any indication, 3-D sports broadcast technology is not ready for prime time.

81 movie theaters in 35 states broadcast a special version of Florida's 24-14 victory over Oklahoma to audiences wearing traditional 3-D glasses. It was the first public broadcast of a live sporting event using the technology.

Buckeyeliscious

My favorite thing about Ohio State?

Buckeye Crunch.

This stuff is delicious. I'm terrified to think about what eating a box of it did to my cholesterol, but it was the perfect blend of peanut butter, chocolate, and caramel corn. Even if it shortened my life span, it will lengthen others ... every sale helps raise money for cancer research.

Big thanks to my friend Rhonda for bringing a box back from a trip to Columbus. If you know anybody from Ohio who is coming out for the game, ask them to pack some for your tailgate.

-- Adam Rose

Day of reckoning approaches

There's an old political saying that if you sit on the fence, you'll get splinters ... where the sun don't shine.

Hopefully the guy with this license plate has a good pair of tweezers. I noticed it on a car here in L.A. a few months ago. Maybe it's owned by Todd Covert.

-- Adam Rose

Trojans come out on top

College football is underway, but you're still seven days from the first game at the Coliseum. The bye week is building the anticipation. You can't wait ... to tailgate. Emily Nerland, USC grad student (with future aspirations of one day being an employed American citizen) gives you a taste of things to come with a report on her trip to Virginia.

For anyone who watched the game on TV and possesses the observational skills of at least a toddler, you could tell by the shots of profusely sweating fans that Virginia was hot and humid. I would liken it to being in a mouth. A hot, sticky, Southern mouth. 

You could also gather after watching the first quarter that the game was going to be a blowout. Sitting in the comfort of an air-conditioned room you could switch channels to another game while not losing half your body weight to excessive perspiration. Hey, you could have gone surfing at halftime! That is the beauty of Southern California. A team you are proud to cheer for and a climate where 72 and sunny is the rule rather than the exception. 

So what did Virginia have to offer other than a tune-up game that, in retrospect, served as a spring board to the top of the polls? In the ways of football I’d say not much more. The only passionate exchange of words about football came at 4 in the morning at a Waffle House and it was regarding fantasy football draft picks.

O-S-Who?

So much for No. 1 vs. No. 2.

Even if USC manages to hold onto its top ranking in the ever-fickle polls, Ohio State stands little chance of jumping Georgia for the No. 2 spot. The Buckeyes (sans Beanie Wells) barely escaped unranked Ohio, 26-14. The hype-machine would have loved to see the nation's two top-ranked teams on the 13th, but for now we'll just have to settle for a September edition of what would be a classic Rose Bowl.

The line of the day comes from Chris G. of Pasadena:

"After enduring [Ohio State]'s game against Ohio, I hope the Trojans don’t get caught looking ahead to Oregon State."

-- Adam Rose

Beanie Wells sits out of Ohio State practice

Ohio State running back Chris "Beanie" Wells did not practice Monday and continued to wear a protective boot on the right foot he injured Saturday against Youngstown State, according to a report issued by the team. Wells has been receiving treatments but officials did not give an exact diagnosis or a timeline for his recovery.

-- David Wharton
Reporting from Columbus, Ohio
Photo of Beanie Wells by Fred Squillante / The Columbus Dispatch

Also on latimes.com: Chris Dufresne has more on how Ohio State Coach Jim Tressell could use this to his advantage.

Rapid response to UCLA's ad

Response to UCLA's "Monopoly Is Over" ad from USC fans has varied from laughter to, well, that's pretty much the only response we've heard from people who wear cardinal and gold.

Gerrrg, a regular commenter on this blog, submitted the modified version you see here. Click the image to see a larger size.

One of The Wiz's readers really had to add only one word to the original.

-- Adam Rose

Marketing machine in motion

If you picked up the Los Angeles Times on Monday, you couldn't have missed this ad.

It ran in the Sports section and took up a quarter of a page.

When somebody asked Pete Carroll on Tuesday about the monopoly being over, USC's coach asked the press corps, "Are they talking about the Lakers?"

When reporters didn't drop the subject, Carroll mused that if this were a presidential race, it would have to say whether the candidate endorses the ad.

-- Adam Rose

Take That, USC!

Who's the real 'SC?

According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, it's the University of Southern California ... not the University of South Carolina.

On Friday, the local USC won an administrative tribunal that helped define who has rights to the "SC" logo, including the interlocking version. The case originated back in 2002.

Here's some additional trivia on the ongoing battle for the "real" USC:

• The University of Southern California is also fighting a trademark battle against a high school in Utah that calls itself the USC Trojans and uses cardinal and gold as their school colors.
• Earlier this year, the USC Gamecocks altered their official school color because of similarities with the USC Trojans. Both schools used the exact same manufacturing color codes for a variant of red known here in Los Angeles as "cardinal." Though the change to another shade of red was subtle, school officials reportedly made the switch after research showed they had lost the brand identity battle in the eye of the public -- even in South Carolina.
• In recent years, the Gamecocks have been fighting another trademark battle -- trying to stop companies from making unlicensed "USC 'Cocks" merchandise. Several of those items (mainly hats) have appeared on the Los Angeles USC campus.
• The University of Southern California loathes the moniker "Southern Cal," even though it makes a limited run of "Southern Cal" branded apparel every year. The production is necessary for the school to retain its trademark and prevent anybody else from using it.
• The school color for Santa Clara University, sometimes referred to as the University of Santa Clara (USC), is also a variation of red.
• South Carolina owns www.sc.edu, Santa Clara owns www.scu.edu, and Southern California owns www.usc.edu.
• The University of Southern California has a detailed identity program described on this website.

-- Adam Rose