The real race will be to see who will join Daniel and incumbent Tim Tebow for the weekend of festivities leading to the announcement. Other serious candidates on the radar have to be USC linebacker Maualuga, Georgia RB Knowshon Moreno and Oklahoma QB Sam Bradford.

As impressive as USC's Sanchez is — and he fits right into the Trojans' new tradition of Heisman quarterbacks — Maualuga is the best player on that team and the most impressive defensive player in the country this season.

Daniel's performances so far have been mind-blowing. He's led Missouri to an average of 58 points a game, completing 72 percent of his passes, with 10 touchdowns, just one interception and already 1,031 yards of total offense (344 per game). He played the whole game against Illinois and about the equivalent of one whole game combined against Southeast Missouri and Nevada.

The results of those 28 drives have been 20 scores (18 touchdowns, two field goals), four punts, one fumble, one interception, and two turnovers on downs. That's great, right? Now consider that in the Illinois game, once the Tigers had put the game away, they pretty well took the air out of the ball in the fourth quarter, and they went punt-punt-punt-downs in their last four possessions while running clock.

So when Chase Daniel has been on the field in the first three quarters of games this year, they've had the ball 24 times, good for 20 scores (126 points). The schedule will get much tougher after this week's final non-league game against Buffalo, but his efficiency and leadership do not figure to wane.

He's for real and so are the Tigers — and what's really interesting is that this year they don't play Oklahoma at all ... until they both reach the Big 12 Championship Game.

On the same day USC sent the message that it has re-established its margin over the rest of the league, suddenly everybody in the MWC can walk into recruits' homes in the West and say, "Pac-10, Smack-10." Uh ... this is not a good thing for the non-Trojans out West — at least those in the Pac-10.

What's more, a supposed Pac-10 contender (Cal) couldn't hang with a so-so ACC team (Maryland). And two other Pac-10 teams were blown out by Big 12 teams — and one of those teams was Baylor!

Even when Oregon was able to rally to beat Purdue in overtime, Ducks quarterback Jason Roper sustained a knee injury that could cost him the next month.

The big question in the Pac-10 right now is whether any of the other teams can get things together well enough and consistently enough to earn an invitation to the Rose Bowl while USC heads for the BCS championship game. It doesn't seem likely. These days, a team must have nine wins AND a top-14 national ranking to qualify for a BCS bowl, and this weekend's results sure make that seem unlikely — someone might even have to beat USC along the way.

BYU went medieval on UCLA, making a 59-0 statement for its eventual BCS candidacy. Consider that even if the Cougars go undefeated — which would have to include a victory over similarly white-hot Utah — they'd still not be guaranteed a BCS spot. According to BCS selection procedures, for a team from the Mountain West, Conference USA, WAC, MAC, or Sun Belt to be guaranteed a BCS bowl, they must be ranked in the top 12 in the final BCS rankings or be ranked in the top 16 and higher than a BCS conference champion.

Even at that, only the highest-ranked team from outside the six power conferences would be guaranteed a spot, and other teams ranked in the top 14 would be eligible to be selected.

That means teams like BYU, East Carolina, Utah and perhaps Boise State are not only competing with the glass ceiling that annually marks an upstart team's rise toward the BCS, but they're competing with each other in the minds of voters and computers.

With the unusual possibility that no Pac-10 team will be eligible for the Rose Bowl, BYU and Utah ought to start raising money to purchase 50,000 Rose Bowl tickets up front, and start lobbying the folks in the distinctive white blazers in Pasadena by offering to buy up every single ticket if that's what it takes.

The outcome was really quite predictable: In recent years, we have seen USC in really big games, and we have seen Ohio State in really big games ... c'mon, who's kidding whom?

USC has lightning speed, knows how to win in the big-game spotlight, especially at the Coliseum, and was playing at home.

Ohio State is somewhat lumbering (again), has not shown well in big games, was playing on the road and was playing without Beanie Wells (as if he would have made all that much of a difference).

Even if the Buckeyes were to right themselves and roll to an 11-1 regular-season record, it's hard to believe that voters would value a perfect Big Ten record this year above a conference championship in the SEC or Big 12. In other words, this already looks like the BCS championship game will be a competitive game (for a change from recent years).

• West Virginia at Colorado (Thursday night)
• Florida at Tennessee
• Georgia at Arizona State
• LSU at Auburn
• Alabama at Arkansas
• Boise State at Oregon
• East Carolina at North Carolina State