Outrageous Excesses

I had the good fortune of being able to travel to LA for this week's Game of the Century. The tongue-in-cheek moniker of "this weeks Game of the Century" in itself suggest the outrageous excesses of over-hype that games like the USC-Ohio State match tend to generate. In the news-worthy drought of September (no BCS poll to complain about, conference play not even started), sports writers and fans alike will happily glom onto the mere potential of a "bowl game" before summer has even ended. Rewarding teams for scheduling a tough opponent early in the season is laudable, but proper perspective should be maintained.

I knew we were headed toward excessive hype when ESPN added "OSU-USC" as a ticker category on their "bottom line" scrolling news. That's compared to other more general categories like "NCAAF", "AL", "NL", and "NFL." Crazy.

Take the ultra-hype, add ESPN game day, stir in a warm sunny evening in LA, add a dash of celebrity sightings, and bake it all in an oven of a brewing rivalry between coaches who have yet to meet on the field of battle. The dish that results is so outrageously excessive that it could only be paired with a 1971 Lafitte Rothschild to do it any justice.

The excesses began early Saturday. Since ESPN game day must be broadcast live to the lazy blokes on the East coast at the pedestrian hour of 10 am ET, the show began bright and early at 7am in LA. This was hardly a deterrent to the rabid USC fans, who started pouring into the Exposition Park area well before dawn. I spoke to one tailgater who arrived at 7:30am and got the very last spot on the lawn outside the stadium. This is hardly impressive to other schools with more intensive tailgating traditions (the liquor stores in Iowa City and Columbus open at 6:00 am on game days!), but for the usually laid back Los Angelenos, this is unheard of.

We planned to arrive at 2pm for a "leisurely" tailgate luncheon, but soon discovered that all 93,600 had gotten to the freeway before us and we sat in the I-110S parking lot for an hour. Finally getting to the Cardinal and Gold picnic location, we were overwhelmed by the long lines for the 8 different buffets of barbecue and the impressive display of liquor at the open bar.

Wandering through the mass hordes of stadium-side parties, I was very impressed with the rapid growth of USC tailgating. Where they was once ample lawns for blankets and picnic baskets, cars and "pop up" tents covered the park. We passed one generous fellow who planned ahead on providing to his fellow fans: an eight person beer bong. Why get drunk alone when you can pass out with 7 other complete strangers.

The bowl/championship atmosphere carried on into the stadium, where the Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe (talk about outrageous excess) played the pre-game followed by a flyover by navy jets. It is not enough to "just" have a 120-member band plays Stars and Stripes and the Star Spangled Banner. They had to add the 150 decibel roar of fighter jets a few hundred feet overhead. Why stop there? Where were the fireworks? OK- they did light the Olympic torch at the start of the 4th quarter (how cool is that- what other team can boast to play under the light of an Olympic torch? The Atlanta Braves? Anyone else?)

The really fun part of USC games these days is the stargazing. We can expect to find Marcus Allen, Henry Winkler, and Matt Leinhart along the sidelines somewhere, but other celebs often show. With the hype surrounding this match, the celebrity count was expected to be outrageously excessive. The lead photo for this blog tells you all you need to know about the current state of USC football. That's George Lucas shaking hands with the Governator (maybe asking if he could play Darth in a future film). 'Nuff Said!

The game itself was full of outrageous excesses. One would expect these two brilliant coaches (Jim Tressel and Pete Carroll) to come up with some unconventional tricks for this special game, but these two really mixed it up beyond expectations. USC scored its first touchdown with a 35 yard post pattern to a fullback! (Yes, you read that right). They scored their second to a true freshman TE who hadn't caught a pass before. Buckeye freshman phenom Terrelle Pryor was expected to see some action, but I never expected Tressel to use alternating QB's on his opening drive. They didn't alternate series; they alternated EVERY PLAY!

The final score was excessive in its own way. I am not surprised that USC won or even beat the spread, but racking up 35 points against one of the best defenses in the nation is ridiculous. And holding Ohio State to only 3 points is remarkable. Watching Rey Malaluga return an interception 43 yards for a TD and relishing sack after sack in the 2nd half gives evidence to my belief that this USC is SCARY good. As good as or better than the 2004 team that went 13-0 and beat Oklahoma to win the national title. And that final was held in Miami. Oklahoma just moved up to number 2 this week. The BCS championship this year is in Miami.

History does repeat itself.

Fight On,

Hans