00:00But the best team in action, without question, is USC from the Big Ten.
00:05And USC are, you know, that next team up, maybe alongside Michigan,
00:11when you think about who can upset the order here.
00:15Ohio State, Oregon, and Indiana, all with national championship aspirations,
00:20all think they can win the Big Ten championship.
00:24And it's a conference, Craig, that at various points of the offseason,
00:31I have picked, I think, four different teams to win this conference in my mind.
00:38I think there's cases to be made for, of course, the Big Three, plus USC.
00:43There's also an argument to be made that, you know, winning the Big Ten championship
00:48isn't the most important thing in the world.
00:51You know, two seasons ago, Oregon, with a super dominant regular season,
00:56won the Big Ten title game, and their gift was playing Ohio State in round two.
01:00While, you know, Penn State had a much softer matchup,
01:04who lost in that Big Ten championship game.
01:06And obviously, you know, they moved a little bit differently within the rankings here.
01:10I'm just, I'm curious for you, when you see these top Big Ten teams here,
01:16the fact that it includes Indiana, the pressure on Oregon with Dante Moore,
01:21who, not quietly snubbed the NFL, would have been a top five draft pick,
01:27I think, by anybody's account, to come back here for another season.
01:30Ohio State guy has, you know, Arthur Smith and Matt Patricia.
01:34Are there offensive and defensive coordinators here?
01:36What is the top item in the Big Ten that really stands out to you?
01:41Yeah, I think that it is possible that teams like Oregon and USC are a little bit undervalued in the
01:48conference.
01:49There's so much discussion about which home games will those teams get because of the distance that is travel.
01:56It's very hard for some of those teams to adjust based on the time.
02:00And I think that does give those two teams in particular the advantage here.
02:04It is kind of sad to see the Pac-12, you know, kind of become what they are.
02:09They're trying to survive.
02:10They added some teams in the offseason to try and get themselves back on the map.
02:14I think they did a pretty decent job of that.
02:17But I think that them, USC in particular, opening up tonight does give us a little bit of a view
02:24as to what potentially, you know, Lincoln Riley's team will look like this season.
02:28Now, they do play San Jose State, and San Jose State is one of those new teams to the Mountain
02:34West.
02:35And I can tell you they and a lot of the other teams in this conference want to have a
02:39good showing.
02:39But unfortunately, I do think San Jose State is probably, if not the weakest,
02:44one of the weakest teams in the conference, especially defensively.
02:47So, you know, just sort of looking at this game tonight in particular or this afternoon in particular,
02:53I do think as we kind of go along, we'll talk about some spreads.
02:56We'll talk about some games.
02:57I do think USC is just so far superior to San Jose State.
03:03My concern in the game in particular with the line is obviously what you think about in the fourth quarter
03:09of a week zero.
03:10You have to be the least prepared college football team to enter into week zero.
03:15You've had the least amount of time to prepare just because you're opening up in the first game.
03:19So I was looking at maybe USC's team total as a possibility of going over with.
03:24But, I mean, this game could be 31-3, Kevin.
03:28It could be, you know, 27-6 or something like that.
03:33And so USC has much bigger games coming up on the schedule.
03:37I do think that the Trojans will win today.
03:39But I am kind of curious as to what their offense is going to look like.
03:43Not all that optimistic, unfortunately, with San Jose State.
03:47And I know that, again, they would like to have a good showing.
03:50Maybe even a bigger showing today would be North Dakota State, as I mentioned.
03:55And I want to talk about that game coming up a little bit later, too.
03:57Because it is kind of funny with the Mountain West, you know, sort of pushing themselves up.
04:02And with these other conferences adding teams as well.
04:03Yeah, the conference realignment is real to stay on USC versus San Jose State.
04:10This was a really interesting game to break down for USC.
04:16And, firstly, USC playing here in Week 0 is a very sharp move.
04:21Because it snags them an additional bye week, which this team could really use.
04:30If you'll notice on the USC schedule, having that extra bye week, they have placed before a pair of East
04:41Coast road trips.
04:42It shows that USC really understand the struggles they've had.
04:49And I appreciate that self-awareness.
04:53I think there are, in college basketball, Mick Cronin kicks and screams when UCLA are running over to East Lansing
05:02to play Michigan State.
05:04And sometimes it feels as if his complaints are never actually going to yield.
05:09I mean, they're not going to cancel the games, Mick, right?
05:12I think USC owning these struggles and trying to find ways around these struggles by, okay, we have a bye
05:20going into Wisconsin.
05:21We're much better than Wisconsin.
05:23This shouldn't be a problem.
05:24Okay, we have a bye going to Indiana.
05:26Indiana are better than us.
05:27But that's a nice little spot, right?
05:29We've got a little bit of extra time to prepare.
05:31We're going to be coming off of an Ohio State game.
05:33Maybe this gives us an opportunity to split, you know, that late season Ohio State and Indiana double up.
05:39So I think it's really sharp for USC to be playing here in week zero.
