Here's SC athletic director Mike Ball.

Obviously, I think their brand in their recent performance, certainly helps them immensely.

I mean, coming toe SC.

After spending six years in the state of Ohio at the University of Cincinnati, I get a good sense of what their prowess is and and the way they've accomplished so many different things.

So, you know, I've my hat's off to him.

I've competed against them in from numerous institutions, and I understand that.

I think that's why Friday is a big opportunity for us.

I really do.

I mean, when you start comparing some of the different power indexes and so forth, you know, we'll see how that shakes out.

But our focus right now is on Friday.

That's exactly where it should be is the Trojans can win a Pac 12 championship, and that means something.

But for the purpose of our discussion, we talk playoff here.

Now USC has the same record as Ohio State, but in my judgment they're not close to the same teams.

SCS had to pull a couple games out of the fire.

One of them against the very poor opponent, the other two against very average opponents.

Um, you look at this now and big brands do get the benefit of the doubt, Kirk.

And if USC had been dominant, I think they might have gotten some of the benefit of the doubt that Ohio State has gotten, but they haven't looked the same.

You look at the two teams play in Ohio State, has controlled its games in a far greater manner, uh, than the Trojans have.

Yeah, you know, people bring up, I test, and you can use I test or you can actually use metrics.

And you look at the efficiency favorite Ohio State considerably is what you just said.

Game Control favors Ohio State considerably.

The strength of schedule is in favor of USC.

Neither one is great, but the difference is the way Ohio State has played.

You know, Ohio State, they've had huge leads on some teams and allowed teams to come back, and they still are up very high as far as game control.

So I think that's the biggest difference that enjoy the the team that was coming in.

You know how you know you're not supposed to look at teams before the season starts, but with the team that Ohio State had last year, there's a lot of those players coming back.

I think Ohio State had AH lot of momentum coming into this year, and I don't think they've done necessarily anything to diminish that based on the games that they played in.

No, and it's always interesting to me.

And we've always had discussions about, you know, at times you don't control your schedule, and especially in this season, you had zero control over your schedule.

So if you're gonna play a Naresuan, a state team that has now sent it wanted to, you can't have tipped passes at the end to find a way to beat them by one point.

That was the moment when all of a sudden was like, Oh, USC might not be as good as we thought.

And then they play Arizona the next week, who is now Senate 05 It was a four point victory again, very close at the end, and then this last this past weekend.

The win, the game at the end against a now average u C l A team.

It just opens your eyes to say, Look, you're undefeated, but you haven't made the statements that we needed to see to get you into this conversation.

Ohio State has made those statements besides the very close game to Indiana, which was a top 10 team at the time.

So the difference is when you watch these twos team play.

It's not just the five and a record at the end.

It's how you arrived at five and know that has hurt U.

S.

C.

No doubt who you played.

Who you've beaten is obviously a big stipulation with the committee.

I think USCs five and oh, and they're five opponents have a combined seven wins.

Um, if you watch the U.

C.

L A game last week, I think if you watch that they play that game again, you might favorite u C L A.

So I don't think it's a I think, the bias.

I think it's fair.

I think USC USC on defense.

You question them on defense.

On offense, you've had moments where you questioned him as well, so I think there are really good football team.

I would love to have seen them play Mawr games against competitive folks, but they played a less than desirable schedule and they haven't looked great.

So that's not something that you're gonna say.

Oh, man, we need to be fighting for them to put them in the top five, Put them in the top six.

It's not at that point.

Jesse.

Yeah, David, I think it's just a simple is.

Ohio State's a better team and they're playing in a better conference, and you guys have alluded to the game controlling how dominant they've been.

Consider that Ohio State probably played their C minus game against Indiana team.

The committee has ranked, I think, 11 right now.

And they were winning that game 35 to 7 before things started getting weird.

And you guys have talked about how USC has had to come back and three of their games.

It's not just us saying this, by the way, the committee in their very first college football playoff ranking had Ohio State at four and they had us see at number 18 Now, I said at the beginning of the show, it doesn't help us see when you're not playing anybody that's ranked and that's on the Pac 12.

I also think from a committee standpoint, you're not supposed to evaluate what's happened in the past, but I do think in some people's subconscious they remember seeing USC give up 49 points against Iowa in the Holiday Bowl just this past season, a Big 10 team.

So I think all of that plays into why Ohio State has ranked so much higher than USC at this point.

Hey, look, I think USC is dangerous on offense.

I would have loved to have seen him have that opportunity originally had scheduled against Alabama in the season opener.

And you know, people say, Well, why aren't you giving them credit for the victories?

In my estimation, we are because we're having this discussion, right?

We're having the discussion as to why their record is not giving them the same place, Uh, that that Ohio State has attained, and the reason is is because they won the game.

So they're getting credit for it, and they deserve it.

It's not easy to win and us he's been able to do that without blemish so far and have a chance to win a conference championship.

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