So here I am watching the PAC-12 Championship Game between USC and Oregon, when an opinion I’ve held for years pops back up in my head: Why is USC pretty much irrelevant not only in college football, but basically every other major sport (football, basketball, baseball)? The football team is 5-0 and ranked 13th in the nation, but as I’m sitting here typing, they’re down by seven points to a 3-2 (unranked) Oregon team. I understand that anything can happen in a winner-take-all setting, but there’s no reason this game should even be close. But look, I’m not here to breakdown a single football game…it’s just baffling to me that they’re not a national championship contender every year in the major sports, when it should be so easy to recruit there.
If you’re unaware, USC was under NCAA sanctions for a few years (2010-2014) because of cheating within their football and basketball programs. But it’s not 2015. If it were, I’d cut them some slack for being fresh off of sanctions in which their football program lost 30 scholarships over a three-year span, and were banned from the postseason for two years. But, it’s 2020, and they’ve had plenty of time to recover.
And don’t think that I’m just piling on USC here. UCLA, although not as historically good at football as USC, should be, and I’ve never really understood why they’re not. Of the two schools, UCLA’s baseball team is the only national championship contender of the bunch (of the 3 major sports), but we all know baseball pails in comparison when compared to the attention and money football and basketball bring in. Which brings me to the real point of this article: how could it be so hard to recruit legit football and basketball players to USC and UCLA??
Like most things, it starts with the people in charge. It’s hard to win games with bad coaches, and based on the fact that USC and UCLA’s football and basketball teams haven’t been good in years (aside from Lonzo Ball’s one year at UCLA), the coaches aren’t living up to my standards. The real issue is that good coaches are so hard to find, and most of the good ones are locked down at SEC and ACC schools.
My final point is that USC and UCLA are two of the top 5 of the easiest schools to recruit to in the country. Here’s a little rundown on what makes both of these schools great options (from a male’s perspective):
- Beautiful women everywhere
- Located in Los Angeles (good chance Drake will go to games, close to beach, great weather, tourist destination)
- Fantastic academic schools to hold degrees from
- Actually a nice city to live in if you decide to stay after graduation.
- Tinder game is strongest of any city I’ve been to in the U.S.
- Literally down the street from famous shit (Rodeo Drive/Beverly Hills, L.A. Live, Hollywood Sign, Spearmint Rhino, Santa Monica Pier, and the list goes on…)
It was actually kinda hard to narrow down the above list to just a few things because there is so much shit to do in LA…especially for a college kid. I know athletes have a lot less free time to do things, but they still have time, trust me. They still have to be kids once in a while, and even if they don’t want to venture too far off campus, the frats and sororities aren’t too shabby either. Seriously, how in the fuck are schools in rural Alabama, South Carolina, Oklahoma, etc. able to steal Southern California’s top talent away from Los Angeles schools? Actually, that was a rhetorical question because we already know the answer. Like I said earlier, it’s the coaches. Schools in those other states I just mentioned have great programs that have been built by fantastic head coaches. The unfortunate reality is that the only way USC or UCLA will ever be relevant again is to either steal one of the big time coaches away from his/her school, or find a protege everyone else is sleeping on. Until then, the greater LA area will keep losing the local kids to Bama and Clemson. Take me back to the Reggie Bush and Pete Carroll era please.