ESPN to feature two non-USC games

Remember ESPN's love fest with USC a couple years ago when they anointed the Trojans the best team ever in the history of mankind in any sport? Unfortunately Texas kind of got in the way of the whole thing but that's just minor details. Well install those air-sickness bags next to your favorite recliner because the worldwide leader is buying the flowers and chocolates for a second date. I'm guessing with this full court press they may just get to third base before the season is over.

USC, last year's Rose Bowl winner and a consensus pre-season National championship contender, will be televised five times: at Nebraska (Sept. 15), Washington State (Sept. 22), at Washington (Sept. 29), Oregon State (Nov. 3) and
at California (Nov. 10).

That's five time in primetime on the ESPN "family" of networks. But that's not all; I'm willing to bet we could see more:

In addition to the confirmed games on the schedule, four Big Ten and three Pac-10 matchups have been designated for a primetime telecast on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2. Network assignments for those contests will be determined six or 12 days before the date of the game.

Anyone care to take that bet? Let's look at the remaining USC sched to get an idea of games that have start times yet to be determined.

09/01/07		vs. Idaho	TBD
10/06/07		vs. Stanford	TBD
10/13/07		vs. Arizona	TBD
10/27/07		at Oregon	TBD

Oct. 13^th is one of two beer-swillin, circle watching, dog kickin' NASCAR Nextel Cup nights on ESPN so throw that date out and you're left with Idaho, Stanford and Oregon. If Oregon is even remotely decent, mark that one on your calendar it will be on.

Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike USC, but come on ESPN do we really need to see one team that much? USC already has a distinct recruiting advantage thanks in no small part to Reggie Bush calling 5 star recruits to convince them of USC's greatness tradition, do they need to be exposed in primetime five or six times as well? I guess in ESPN's world the SEC doesn't exist.