A Broadcaster Preaching Restraint? Very Unlikely

And this week’s most amazing Rose Bowl-related headline was:

a) “Leinart Passes For 3 TDs, Catches Another!”

b) “Colbert’s One-Handed Grab Rocks Michigan!”

c) “Trojan Defense Racks Up 9 Sacks!”

d) “ESPN Broadcaster Preaches Prudence!”

If jumping to conclusions were an Olympic event, the American sporting media could form a breakaway republic, enter their own team and never miss a gold medal.

Thursday night’s performance was a prime example, with TV pundits getting great elevation, superb separation, as they leaped to declare USC a lock for the Associated Press poll’s national championship.

On ABC, Terry Bowden said it was over. Craig James said it was over. USC already holds first place in the AP poll, and as the Trojans wrapped up a 28-14 victory over Michigan, Keith Jackson mused, “I’ll bet you my big toe they don’t slide in the AP poll.”

Over at ESPN, Chris Fowler wasn’t so sure.

Remember January ‘98, when Michigan won the Rose Bowl and watched its first-place lead in the coaches’ poll evaporate when Nebraska won the Orange Bowl and too many of Tom Osborne’s colleagues suddenly felt the urge to hand the Cornhuskers’ retiring coach a co-championship as a going-away gift? Fowler surely does, which might be why he described the Trojans’ fruits of victory as “a very likely co-national championship.”

“I say ‘very likely’ because in college football, you never know about these things,” he said. “But, if you were voting in the AP for USC No. 1, as a lot more folks were than for LSU, I don’t know how you change.”

Lee Corso said, “You don’t change.”

Kirk Herbstreit said, “There’s no question the AP belongs to the USC Trojans football team.”

Again, Fowler wasn’t so sure.

“We’ve seen weird stuff in this sport,” Fowler said. “You’re going to say it’s a lock ... “

Herbstreit, cutting off Fowler: “Lock!”

Corso, cutting off Herbstreit: “It’s a lock!”

Fowler alluded to a graphic that showed USC’s doubling LSU in first-place votes in the current AP poll, 42-21. The final poll won’t be announced until after Sunday night’s Sugar Bowl between LSU and Oklahoma.

“You saw the first-place votes there in the AP,” Fowler said. “I think it’s very unlikely, but you’ve got to wait three days to make it official.

“And I thought the [USC] celebration was a little bit muted because of that. We’ve seen 15 straight national-championship celebrations. This one felt a little bit different.”

Herbstreit asked Fowler, an AP voter, if he’d change his vote for USC after watching the Trojans’ Rose Bowl performance. Fowler said he would not.

Herbstreit held up two fingers, the Trojans’ victory sign, and then pulled back his middle finger, leaving the index finger alone, signaling No. 1.

Fowler: “Well, you’ve got to make it official in a few days in New Orleans.”

He’s right. Stranger things have happened. Sunday, we’ll have a chance to watch one first-hand as ABC televises a BCS “national championship” game with the No. 1 team in the media and coaches’ polls watching along with us.

Counting down the weekend viewing options until, ahem, “a very likely co-national championship:”

TODAY

* Humanitarian Bowl

(ESPN, 9 a.m.)

It’s the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane on the blue plastic grass of Boise State. That’s as colorful as it gets in Boise in January. Or in any of the other months, come to think of it.

* Tennessee Titans at Baltimore Ravens

(Channel 7, 1:30 p.m.)

It isn’t often a visiting wild-card team is favored in a first-round NFL playoff game, but then it isn’t often a team quarterbacked by Anthony Wright is the host team for a first-round NFL playoff game. The Titans come in favored by two points, largely because quarterback Steve McNair, named league co-most valuable player Friday, has been fit enough to practice this week. The Ravens have running back Jamal Lewis, who placed fourth in the MVP voting, and linebacker Ray Lewis, who finished sixth. And at quarterback, they have Anthony Wright.

* Dallas Cowboys at Carolina Panthers

(Channel 7, 5 p.m.)

Quincy Carter versus Jake Delhomme in an NFL playoff game. Trent Dilfer still has so much to answer for.

SUNDAY

* Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers

(Channel 11, 10 a.m.)

The Mirage Bowl. Green Bay shouldn’t be here, not with Minnesota’s holding an 11-point lead with three minutes left last Sunday in Arizona. But, you know the Vikings. Seattle shouldn’t be here either, not with a receiver corps that dropped so many passes early in the season Coach Mike Holmgren nicknamed them “the Three Stooges.” But Bobby Engram, Darrell Jackson and Koren Robinson couldn’t drop them all, and Seattle couldn’t lose them all on the road, and last weekend’s rare road victory over San Francisco was enough to send the Seahawks on the road again, one more time, to Lambeau Field.

Catch them while you can. Wisconsin weather in January is no mirage, and neither is Brett Favre.

* Denver Broncos at Indianapolis Colts

(Channel 2, 1:30 p.m.)

The Colts can’t lose to the Broncos twice at home in three weeks, can they? Peyton Manning can’t go 0-4 in the playoffs, can he? Jim Mora still can’t be out there watching and laughing, can he?

* Sugar Bowl

(Channel 7, 5 p.m.)

Having already firmly declared their cases for USC, ABC’s Bowden and James will make the trip to New Orleans anyway. Those so inclined can tune in to watch Oklahoma and LSU play four quarters and see if Bowden or James changes his mind when someone in a bad sports coat hands either Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops or LSU’s Nick Saban a dazzling crystal “national championship” trophy after the game.